Compensation Negotiation - Pay Parity for Cupertino, CA?

On my throw away account again - What's a fair logic for determining pay parity to relocate to Cupertino, CA? Wasn't expecting to discuss salary on the first call I had with a corporate recruiter and they actually went into great detail on the compensation package. However, they are claiming they only consider difference in housing costs to establish pay parity and drive salary discussion. Not sure I agree with this as I haven't done my reseach yet.

Anyone living in or commuting to Cupertino that can chime in? Anyone that relocated there from a lower COL area?

2 Comments
 

So digging in now I think I have figured out why I got such a bad feeling from the discussion I had with this recruiter and the numbers they were trying to push on me. I need to compensate for an additional 8% state income tax, since I don't have any state tax where I am now. Regarding the increase to compensate for housing costs, she was figuring pre-tax dollars. This needs to be calculated as an after tax total value - do you pay your housing costs with pre-tax dollars? No.

So when I run my numbers, just accounting for state tax and housing, I need to get a bump of 45% to make parity. Crazy shit.

What else should I be considering?

 

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