St. Louis → Pittsburgh

Moving from St. Louis to Pittsburgh shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 95.1 to 94.7 (100 = US average), so a St. Louis salary needs to be multiplied by 1.00 to hold the same purchasing power in Pittsburgh. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $916/month in St. Louis to $1,299/month in Pittsburgh - a higher monthly bill of $383, or $4,596/year. That rent delta alone is often the single biggest line item when relocating.

Wages tell the other half. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a median salary of $68,074 in St. Louis versus $65,551 in Pittsburgh - a raw gap of $2,523 lower. The Pittsburgh labor market has 1,098,020 tracked jobs against 1,311,920 in St. Louis, shaping how easy it is to find a comparable role. Combine that with the cost-of-living shift above and you get the real purchasing-power delta, sometimes a "higher salary" is actually a pay cut once rent and RPP are applied.

Safety, schools, and childcare round out the move. FBI UCR violent crime rates near St. Louis and Pittsburgh are 463 and 250 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 12.8:1 at origin versus 13.6:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Less Favorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.