Moving Between States? 20 Paycheck Comparisons (2026)
Twenty real migration corridors, each with the take-home pay difference at every salary we model and the residency rule that decides the bill.
Last updated
How these twenty were chosen
There are thousands of possible state pairs, and writing one page for each would be twenty thousand pages of filler. These twenty were selected by a rule that can be checked: the corridor has to be one real people actually drive, it has to produce a tax difference we can compute, and no pair appears twice in opposite directions.
The volumes are Census American Community Survey state-to-state flows — the 2024 top routes and California corridors, plus the 2019 top net-mover corridors, which is the last year published for a consistent national list. The tax difference is not an estimate from anywhere else: it is the same engine that powers the calculator, run at build time for a single filer earning $100,000 on a biweekly cycle.
Ten corridors end with you paying less, five end with you paying more, and five are close enough that the residency rules decide the outcome — which is where they get interesting.
Leaving a high-tax state
Ten corridors out of California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon — including the two where the move costs money rather than saving it.
| Move | Movers / yr | At $100,000 | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| California → Texas | 77,161 | +$$5,223 | Texas never picks up the tax — California lets go slowly |
| California → Nevada | 53,300 | +$$5,223 | No income tax in Nevada — but overtime changes shape if you are hourly |
| California → Arizona | 52,400 | +$$2,932 | 13.3% to 2.5%: the flattest landing in the set |
| New York → Florida | 50,700 | +$$4,860 | Florida will not tax you — New York may tax days you never worked there |
| California → Washington | 43,900 | +$$5,223 | Same coast, no wage income tax |
| California → Florida | 36,194 | +$$5,223 | Florida's zero, and the 546-day harbor you probably do not qualify for |
| California → Oregon | 31,500 | −$$2,953 | Leaving California into the highest top rate we publish |
| New Jersey → Florida | 16,190 | +$$4,180 | New Jersey's 10.75% ceiling — and a 2023 law that does not follow you to Florida |
| Illinois → Texas | 14,641 | +$$4,805 | Leaving Illinois: the day-count rule working in your favour |
| Oregon → Washington | 12,373 | +$$8,176 | The widest gap in this comparison |
Moving into a tax
Five corridors that start in a state with no wage income tax and end in one that has it. Budget for the change before the U-Haul, not after.
| Move | Movers / yr | At $100,000 | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas → California | 45,447 | −$$5,223 | The state tax you should budget for before the move |
| Florida → Georgia | 52,400 | −$$4,567 | From no tax to a flat rate — the line appears |
| Texas → Colorado | 14,106 | −$$3,692 | Zero to a flat rate — plus Colorado's 12-hour overtime rule |
| Washington → Arizona | 9,373 | −$$2,291 | No wage tax in Washington, a flat rate in Arizona |
| North Carolina → South Carolina | 6,200 | −$$1,362 | Flat North Carolina to graduated South Carolina |
Same money, different law
Five high-volume corridors where the tax gap is small and the residency rules are not: reciprocity, the convenience rule and the 183-day test.
| Move | Movers / yr | At $100,000 | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York → New Jersey | 56,800 | +$$680 | Two high-tax neighbors, and the reciprocal agreement that is not theirs |
| New York → Pennsylvania | 23,977 | +$$1,790 | The convenience rule follows you across the border |
| New Jersey → Pennsylvania | 20,850 | +$$1,110 | The one corridor here where reciprocity works for you |
| New York → Connecticut | 12,566 | +$$935 | The corridor the case law was decided in |
| California → New York | 31,367 | +$$364 | Two of the highest top rates — and a 183-day test between them |
Common questions
Do I owe both states in the year I move?
Usually not, but you file twice. The year you move is a part-year resident return in the state you left and another in the state you arrived in, each covering the wages earned while you were its resident. The date that matters is when your domicile actually changed — a facts-and-circumstances question, not the date on the lease. See the state-by-state rules in our remote worker tax guide.
Does it matter which state my employer is in?
Yes, and it is the second half of the answer. Your home state taxes you as a resident on all income; the state where you physically perform the work separately taxes those days as its source. For most people those are the same place after the move. They are not the same when New York's convenience rule is in play, which is why five of these twenty corridors are about law rather than rates.
Are these numbers an offer from a tax preparer?
No. They are modelled figures from the method section — single filer, no retirement contribution, no health premium, no local tax — recomputed at build time. Real returns differ. Nothing on this site is tax advice.
Every page in this group links both state pages it compares, so the brackets, standard deductions and overtime rules behind the number are one click away. For the sourcing, domicile and reciprocity rules that apply to all of them, start with which state taxes a remote worker. Estimates only — see the Disclaimer.