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

CR Staff - February 11, 2023

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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