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Salaries Required To Be Considered Rich In 40 U.S. Cities

CR Staff - February 11, 2023

25. Charlotte, North Carolina: more than $119,958

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in North Carolina: $327,549

• Median income in Charlotte: $59,979

• Metro-area population: 2.5 million

Charlotte is an important U.S. financial district. Believe it or not, Charlotte, North Carolina has the third most banking assets of any American city after New York City and San Francisco. That’s because Bank of America, which has the second-most total financial assets of any financial company in the United States, is headquartered in North Carolina. And until Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008 at the height of the U.S. housing and loans crisis, Wachovia was headquartered there as well. Since that time Charlotte has become a regional hub for all Wells Fargo’s East Coast operations. (Wells is based out of San Francisco, California.) The Charlotte Metropolitan Area is home to six Fortune 500 companies: Bank of America, Lowe’s, Duke Energy, Nucor, Sonic Automotive, and Sealed Air Corporation. The east coast headquarters for Microsoft is also based in Charlotte.

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24. Nashville, Tennessee: more than $120,060

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Tennessee: $308,834

• Median income in Nashville: $60,030

• Metro-area population: 1.9 million

Nashville is the Country Music Capital of the World and dominates the production and distribution of country music. Only New York City has produced more music than Nashville over the last half-century. It is also home to offices for the Big Four record labels and a number of independent labels, mostly along Music Row in downtown Nashville. Gibson guitars has been headquartered in Nashville since the 1980s. The total economic output of Nashville’s music sector is estimated to be in excess of $6 billion annually and maintains a workforce of 19,000 employees. With one of the fastest growing economies in the United States, and the hottest real estate market in the world (with 100 people moving to Nashville every day from other U.S. cities and around the world), Nashville has been booming in recent years.

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23. Cincinnati, Ohio: more than $120,520

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Ohio: $317,124

• Median income in Cincinnati: $60,260

• Metro-area population: 2.2 million

Located in the Southwest corner of the state of Ohio, Metropolitan Cincinnati boasts the twenty-eighth largest economy in America, and the seventh largest economy in the American Midwest, putting it in the company of Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Cleveland. The city is experiencing high rates of economic expansion. It is currently the number one fastest growing city in the Midwest in terms of capitalization. In addition to the massive inflows of money, Cincinnati has a cost of living 8 percent lower than the national average, so employees there see their dollars stretching far, and the unemployment is also lower than the national average. There are several Fortune 500 corporations with headquarters in Cincinnati, including Procter & Gamble, The Kroger Company, and Macy’s. The Global Operations Center for General Electric is also based in Cincinnati.

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22. Columbus, Ohio: more than $120,588

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Ohio: $317,124

• Median income in Columbus: $60,294

• Metro-area population: 2.0 million

Columbus is the capital city of Ohio, and enjoys a diverse economy with solid fundamentals, with businesses in the education, insurance, banking, fashion, defense, aviation, food, logistics, steel, energy, medical research, health care, hospitality, retail, and technology sectors. The city has four Fortune 500 companies headquartered in its greater metro area: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, and Big Lots. Other sectors that power the Columbus economy include a number of universities (such as Ohio State University), hospitals, technology research and development (such as the Battelle Memorial Institute), big data companies (like OCLC and Chemical Abstracts), steel processing plants, and pressure cylinder manufacturing. There are many foreign companies with major divisions located in the city, including Germany’s Siemens and Roxane Laboratories, Finland’s Vaisala, and Switzerland’s ABB Group.

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21. Kansas City, Missouri: more than $122,770

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Missouri: $351,497

• Median income in Kansas City: $61,385

• Metro-area population: 2.1 million

Although Kansas City is in the middle of the country on the border between Missouri and Kansas, the number one employer in the Kansas City metropolitan area is the United States federal government, with a whopping 146 federal agencies maintaining offices in the area. That’s because Kansas City is one of ten regional administrative office cities for the United States government. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) runs a major 1,400,000 square foot administrative office in Kansas City employing nearly 2,700 workers full time there with a seasonal swell to 4,000 workers during tax season every spring, and this office is one of only two locations that process physical tax returns by U.S. taxpayers Honeywell employs nearly 2,700 workers at their Kansas City Plant, where the company produces and assembles 85% of the components of the United States Department of Defense’s nuclear arsenal.

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20. Houston, Texas: more than $123,416

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Texas: $424,507

• Median income in Houston: $61,708

• Metro-area population: 6.8 million

The U.S. Bureau of Statistics reported in 2013 that Houston was the leading job creating city in the United States, after finding that the city was the first major metro in America to create new jobs to replace all the ones lost during the Great Recession that started in 2007, but the city went even further than that: It added over two jobs for every one that had been lost during the recession. Houston is a global leader in energy production because of the vast reserves of oil and natural gas in Texas, extracted and processed by prominent energy companies based in Houston, but the city is also a leader in biomedical research and development, as well as for the aeronautics industry. Increasingly, alternative energy companies working in wind and solar are making up a greater share of Houston’s energy industry.

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19. Virginia Beach, Virginia: more than $123,610

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Virginia: $406,412

• Median income in Virginia Beach: $61,805

• Metro-area population: 1.7 million

Virginia Beach is a renowned tourist destination, and the beaches, hotels, and associated hospitality businesses power a major portion of the Virginia Beach economy. Nearly 15,000 jobs in the city cater to the annual influx of over 2 million vistors, generating $857 million and creating $73 million in local city revenues. A number of hotels line the beachfront and occupy many spaces throughout the city. Restaurant and entertainment also make a business out of serving tourists on holiday. Virginia Beach christened a brand new convention center in 2005 to host large conferences and events. Because of its coastal location, Virginia Beach is also an international center of commerce, with nearly 200 foreign companies with locations or North American headquarters in Virginia Beach, companies such as: STIHL, Busch, IMS Gear, and Sanjo Corte Fino.

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18. Providence, Rhode Island: more than $123,896

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Rhode Island: $336,625

• Median income in Providence: $61,948

• Metro-area population: 1.6 million

Providence is a major American leader in the design and manufacture of jewelry, silverware, metals, machinery, and textiles. The service industry is also a large share of the Rhode Island city’s bustling economy, specifically in the areas of education, health care, and finance. Providence is also the location for a United States Postal Service “sectional center facility” (or SCF), which is a regional hub for postal mail. As the capital of the state of Rhode Island, Providence is the seat of the state government and the state’s departments and offices make up a sizeable portion of the city’s economy. Over a third of the Providence economy is made up of trade, transportation, utilities, education, and health care services. Providence has two Fortune 500 corporations: Textron and United Natural Foods.

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17. Atlanta, Georgia: more than $125,226

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Georgia: $345,876

• Median income in Atlanta: $62,613

• Metro-area population: 5.8 million

It’s the New York of the South. Boasting an annual GDP in excess of $300 billion, the Greater Atlanta metropolitan area economy is the eighth strongest in the country and the 17th largest in the entire world, in addition to claiming the lion’s share of corporate headquarters for Fortune 500 companies, with the third largest share in America. Global headquarters for companies like The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, AT&T Mobility, Chick-fil-A, and UPS generate billions of dollars of revenue for Atlanta’s powerhouse economy. Atlanta has a highly educated workforce with 45 percent of adults over the age of 25 holding a four-year college degree (the national average is 28 percent). No overview of Atlanta’s economy would do without mention of CNN and the Turner Broadcasting System, which are headquartered in the city.

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16. Dallas, Texas: more than $127,624

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Texas: $424,507

• Median income in Dallas: $63,812

• Metro-area population: 7.2 million

Dallas is home to seventeen billionaires and a number of Fortune 500 companies. In 2008 AT&T (the largest telecom company in the world and ninth-largest company in America by revenue) relocated their corporate headquarters to Downtown Dallas. Other Fortune 500s in Dallas include Energy Transfer Equity, Tenet Healthcare, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments, Jacobs Engineering, HollyFrontier, Dean Foods, and Builders FirstSource. Irving, a city within Dallas County and the greater Dallas metro area has six Fortune 500 companies headquartered there: ExxonMobil (the world’s leading oil company and America’s fourth largest corporation by revenue), Fluor, Kimberly-Clark, Celanese, Michaels Companies, and Vistra Energy. Plano has 4 Fortune 500 companies: J.C. Penney, Alliance Data Systems, Yum China Holdings, and Dr. Pepper Snapple. Ft. Worth has two Fortune 500 companies: American Airlines and D.R. Horton.

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15. Sacramento, California: more than $128,104

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in California: $453,772

• Median income in Sacramento: $64,052

• Metro-area population: 2.3 million

The entire greater Sacramento metropolitan area is the fifth largest by population in the state of California and the 27th-largest in the United States. Notable corporations with a base of operations in California’s capital city of Sacramento include Sutter Health, Blue Diamond Growers, Aerojet, Teichert, and The McClatchy Company. Sacramento’s economy has faced problems with the Port of Sacramento in bankruptcy after years of operating losses due in part to stiff competition from the Port of Stockton on the San Joaquin River, which enjoys the advantages of a bigger port and deeper channel in its river.

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14. Los Angeles, California: more than $131,900

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in California: $453,772

• Median income in Los Angeles: $65,950

• Metro-area population: 13.3 million

Los Angeles is an iconic global city with a vast local economy driven by media and entertainment (including Hollywood motion pictures, television production, video games, a music recording industry, and production companies), international trade, aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and international tourism. Other major industries in the City of Angels include finance, telecom, legal, health care, and transportation. Of the six major film studios in the United States, two are located within the city: Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Believe it or not, Los Angeles is also the number one manufacturing hub in the Western United States. Its ports make it the fifth busiest port city in the world and an integral center for Pacific Rim trade.

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13. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: more than $131,992

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Pennsylvania: $360,343

• Median income in Philadelphia: $65,996

• Metro-area population: 6.1 million

Philadelphia is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the anchor of economic activity in the state. The City of Brotherly Love has five Fortune 1000 corporations within its city limits and an annual gross domestic product in excess of $400 billion, making it the eighth-largest metro economy in America. Philadelphia has many productive sectors in its economy, including financial services, health care, biotechnology, information technology, manufacturing, oil refinement, food processing, and tourism. The number one sector in Philadelphia by revenue and capitalization is its financial industry, but the city also boasts some of the largest local health, education, and research sectors in the United States. The Port of Philadelphia is one of the busiest ports by tonnage in the United States and is expanding its facilities to accommodate even more shipping.

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12. Chicago, Illinois: more than $132,040

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Illinois: $416,319

• Median income in Chicago: $66,020

• Metro-area population: 9.5 million

In the United States, the city of Chicago ranks number three among metro areas for gross domestic product, with an annual GDP in excess of $670 billion. Its economy is highly robust and extremely diversified. In fact, Chicago has been rated the “most balanced economy” in the United States due to its unusually high level of economic diversification. The city has also been named the fourth “most important business center” in the world according to the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. Chicago also boasts a high number of new or recently expanded corporate facilities. The metro area has the third-largest science and engineering workforce of any metro area in America. The city of Chicago is also home to 12 Fortune 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city hosts two Dow 30 companies: aerospace titan Boeing (which moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in 2001) and Kraft Heinz.

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11. Portland, Oregon: more than $137,352

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Oregon: $312,839

• Median income in Portland: $68,676

• Metro-area population: 2.4 million

Portland is well-positioned geographically and has several other advantages due to its economic profile that make it a great place to do business for many industries. It has relatively low regional industrial energy costs, readily available natural resources, north-south and east-west Interstates, international air terminals, large ocean shipping facilities, and a hub for both West Coast intercontinental railroads. Portland’s marine shipping terminals process over 13 million tons of cargo annually, and has one of the largest commercial dry docks in the country, allowing it to be the third largest port by annual export tonnage on the American West Coast. Portland is the leading wheat shipper in the United States, and second-largest wheat port in the world. The city has two Fortune 500 companies that call it home: Precision Castparts and Nike.

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10. San Diego, California: more than $141,648

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in California: $453,772

• Median income in San Diego: $70,824

• Metro-area population: 3.3 million

San Diego’s very diverse economy is comprised of U.S. national defense, tourism, international trade, research and development, and manufacturing. San Diego has been named by Forbes Magazine as the best city in America to start a small business or startup venture. The southern California city has made tremendous capital out of its deepwater port, which allows the city to host the only significant submarine and shipbuilding yards on the Pacific Coast. Multiple prominent private national defense contractors for the United States Department of Defense were founded and remain headquartered in the city. The commercial aspects of San Diego’s port and its geographic location on the Mexican border make it an important hub for international commerce and the city has federal authorization to act as a Foreign Trade Zone. Because of the city’s mild and pleasant climate, beaches, and attractions, tourism makes up a major part of San Diego’s economy.

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9. Austin, Texas: more than $142,000

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Texas: $424,507

• Median income in Austin: $71,000

• Metro-area population: 2.1 million

Austin is one of the leading cities in high tech innovation. Each year the engineering and computer science schools of the University of Texas at Austin mint thousands of new graduates, feeding a steady stream of new employees to power the Texas city’s vast technology and defense contractor industries. High tech companies that operate in Austin include: 3M, Apple, Amazon, AMD, Apartment Ratings, Applied Materials, ARM Holdings, Bigcommerce, BioWare, Blizzard Entertainment, Buffalo Technology, Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, eBay, PayPal, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Hoover’s, HomeAway, Hostgator, Intel Corporation, National Instruments, Nvidia, Oracle, Polycom, Qualcomm, Inc., Rackspace, RetailMeNot, Rooster Teeth, Samsung Group, Silicon Laboratories, Spansion, United Devices, Xerox, and Facebook. Like other major Texas metros, Austin also boasts a thriving biotech industry and many pharmaceutical companies- 85 in all.

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8. New York City: more than $143,794

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in New York: $517,557

• Median income in New York City: $71,897

• Metro-area population: 20.2 million

The Big Apple. New York City is the largest in the United States by population and has the most powerful and influential economy in the world, leading America and the globe in finance, culture, and media. A global powerhouse of commerce, New York City is home to the world’s largest financial sector on Wall Street, as well as major retailing, global trade, transportation, tourism, real estate, media, marketing, law firms, accounting, insurance, theater, fashion, and the arts. As technology transforms commerce in the 21st century, New York City’s massive economy is being serviced by a rapidly expanding tech industry referred to as Silicon Alley. New York is also a major port city, which was originally a major part of its success as it historically developed into a world class Alpha city.

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7. Denver, Colorado: more than $143,852

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Colorado: $410,716

• Median income in Denver: $71,926

• Metro-area population: 2.9 million

The Greater Denver metropolitan statistical area boasts an annual gross domestic product in excess of $157 billion, making it the 18th largest metro economy in America. The Mile High City’s local economy draws much of its strength from its geographic location, serving as a hub for some of America’s major transportation systems, and a point of storage and distribution to other cities in the region. That is due in part also to the fact that Denver is the largest city in a 500-mile radius, so it is an ideal city to service the Mountain and Southwest states in close proximity, extending to all Western states in general. Almost exactly in the middle between the large metros of the American Midwest, and the major Pacific Rim cities (such as Los Angeles and San Francisco), Denver makes for a perfect connecting hub.

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6. Minneapolis, Minnesota: more than $146,462

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Minnesota: $411,022

• Median income in Minneapolis: $73,231

• Metro-area population: 3.6 million

The Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area (referred to as the Twin Cities) is ranked number 3 for economy influence in the American Midwest, after Chicago and Detroit. As the area was being settled, the credit needs of wheat farmers in the area catalyzed the growth of a robust banking sector, and Minneapolis remains an important financial center today. Other prominent sectors in the Twin Cities economy include trade and distribution, rail and long haul trucking, health services, and various industrial concerns that create metal and automobile products, chemical and agriculture goods, electronic components, computers, medical instrumentation and devices, plastics, and industrial machinery. There are five Fortune 500 companies that call Minneapolis home: Target Stores, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, and Thrivent Financial.

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5. Seattle, Washington: more than $157,224

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Washington: $387,854

• Median income in Seattle: $78,612

• Metro-area population: 3.8 million

World-famous for its iconic Space Needle, Seattle is a city with continued strong ties to its economic past even as it looks forward to the economy of the future. With a diverse mix of classic industry and Internet / information technology companies, the greater metro area’s annual gross domestic product tops $230 billion annually, which puts it at number 11 out of all metropolitan economies in the United States for wealth creation. The city’s economy is largely comprised of major corporations, including five Fortune 500 companies: Amazon (which has made its founder Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world), Starbucks, Nordstrom, Expeditors International of Washington, and Weyerhaeuser.

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4. Boston, Massachusetts: more than $164,760

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Massachusetts: $539,055

• Median income in Boston: $82,380

• Metro-area population: 4.8 million

The capital city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a second-tier global city ranked among the top 30 most powerful metros in the entire world, Boston boasts the sixth largest economy in the United States and the 12th largest for any metro area internationally, with an annual gross domestic product in excess of $360 billion annually. The cities dozens of prominent universities and colleges are highly sought after institutions of higher learning that attract a third of a million students from around the world every year, bringing nearly $5 billion USD with them to contribute to the local economy. Boston’s tech schools and companies make the city a global leader in science, technology, and engineering, including economic and social sciences as well as highly technical and applied sciences.

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3. Washington, DC: more than $191,686

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Washington, DC: $544,719

• Median income in DC: $95,843

• Metro-area population: 6.1 million

Washington DC is the seat of the federal government of the United States of America, and resides within a special federal district under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress, so it does not belong to any U.S. state. The many functions of the federal government and the private contracting industry that services its many departments make up a recession-proof local industry that carries on even during national and global economic downturns. Many defense and civilian contractors, law firms, non-profits, lobbyists, trade associations, and professional groups comprise this unique local economy and have their headquarters in Washington DC. Annually the gross domestic product of the greater Washington metropolitan area exceeds $430 billion, which makes it the sixth-largest metro by GDP in the United States.

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2. San Francisco, California: more than $193,354

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in California: $453,772

• Median income in San Francisco: $96,677

• Metro-area population: 4.7 million

Currently an Alpha world city, San Francisco is a historic American city which came to prominence in the United States during the California gold rush of the late 1840s and early 1850s. At that time it established itself as an enduring financial powerhouse of the West Coast, with many calling Montgomery Street in its financial district “the Wall Street of the West.” Technology has been the greatest driver of economic growth in San Francisco in recent years, with high tech jobs making up only 1 percent of San Francisco’s job market in 1990, quadrupling to 4 percent over the next two decades by 2010, and rapidly doubling to 8 percent of the city’s economy by 2013. The San Francisco Bay Area is the global epicenter of Internet start-ups, dot coms, and social media giants.

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1. San Jose, California: More than $220,080

• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in California: $453,772

• Median income in San Jose: $110,040

• Metro-area population: 2 million

It takes a lot of money to be considered rich in San Jose by the rest of the country’s standards, and this extremely affluent American city has some of the highest costs of living in the state of California and the entire nation, driven primarily by the exorbitant real estate prices and rents in the area, which soar above the national average and cater to households with the largest average disposable income of any city in the United States of half a million residents or more. San Jose is home to the headquarters of: Adobe, Altera, Brocade Communications Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, eBay, Lee’s Sandwiches, Lumileds, PayPal, Rosendin Electric, Sanmina-SCI, and Xilinx.

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