#1 of 122
North America
Seattle
WA, United States
Salary & Cost of Living
How do salaries and expenses in Seattle compare to Chicago?
Purchasing Power Comparison
An engineer in Seattle is 61% better off vs in Chicago
This shows how far a software engineer's salary goes in Seattle compared to Chicago, taking into account both salary differences and cost of living.
Net Salary
$173,063
+$79,963 (+86%) vs Chicago
Tax Rate: 29%
Weather
How does the weather in Seattle compare to Chicago?
Seattle has better overall weather
5.4/10(vs 4.2/10 in Chicago)
Overall weather score based on temperature, sunshine, precipitation, and humidity. Learn how it's calculated
Average High
16°C(vs 15°C in Chicago)
Average Low
9°C(same as Chicago)
Sunshine Hours
2,170h/yr-339h/yr(-14%)
Average High in hottest month
25°C(vs 28°C in Chicago)
Average Low in coldest month
3°C(vs -5°C in Chicago)
Rainy Days
127/yr+36/yr(+39%)
Muggy Days
0/yr-42/yr(-100%)
Cloud Cover
55%(vs 47% in Chicago)
Quality of Life
How does quality of life in Seattle compare to Chicago?
Housing Affordability
How affordable is housing for a software engineer in Seattle compared to Chicago?
Avg. Property Price
$6,248 / m²
112% more expensive than Chicago
SWE Affordability
2.9 years
0.4 years longer than Chicago
Community & Events
Events listed on lu.ma, a popular Meetup alternative in tech circles, can indicate local community engagement.
Seattle has around 20 Luma events listed.
That's 20% fewer events than Chicago.
Salary Converter
Enter your annual gross salary (before taxes) to see what you would need to earn in Seattle to maintain the same standard of living.
$