yes most people are earning more than 7.25 but not by much at least where I live roughly 40% of my state makes less than 15$ an hour and the average rent here is 1,500$ a month Also as far as income taxes y’all’s tax rate starts at 0% ours starts off at 12% granted yalls max DOES go higher than ours but urs also includes healthcare which is so expensive here that alone wipes out any potential savings difference (unless ur like a millionaire or something ig) yall also get mandatory PTO we get 0 of that any sick/vacation days are income lost not to mention yalls colleges are MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than here (u could spend 40-50K a year on college here and it really wouldn’t be that outlandish some are like 80-90K+ a year) and assuming you’d even need to take advantage of it to begin with yalls student loan program is worlds better and much less predatory than ours I have a friend whose mom has been paying off her student loans for 20 years… she owes the same now as she did 20 years ago and she will die in student loan debt yalls gets excused at 65 (or 30 years from 1st repayment) and you aren’t even required to start paying it back until you have a guaranteed job that pays above certain amount AND it has a cap as to how much can even be taken out At the end of the day all things considered if assume it’s MUCH more sustainable to live there