$150,000 in Austin ≈ €154,817 in Madrid
Austin vs Madrid: cost of living, compared
Equivalence is solved so household net cash matches across both cities, with taxes, housing, childcare, healthcare, food, and travel all included.
What changes: Austin → Madrid
- ▴ 7 more vacation days per year in Madrid (statutory)
- ▴ 16 more paid parental-leave weeks (16 vs 0)
- ▴ Universal healthcare in Madrid (no premium / minimal OOP)
- ▾ Income + payroll tax runs 33.5% in Madrid vs 21.4% in Austin
The headline math
| Austin household gross | $150,000 |
| Austin taxes (21.4%) | −$32,129 |
| Austin living costs | −$43,209 |
| Austin net cash | $74,662 |
| ≈ | |
| Madrid household gross needed | €154,817($176,530) |
| Madrid taxes (33.5%) | −€51,833 |
| Madrid living costs | −€37,506 |
| Madrid net cash | €65,478 |
Computed at the city-median tech-worker salary, Austin (typical professional) · effective tax rates: 21.4% vs 33.5%
The bottom line
- →$150,000 in Austin leaves about the same net cash as €154,817 in Madrid for this scenario, after real taxes and living costs.
- →Taxes take 21.4% of gross in Austin versus 33.5% in Madrid.
- →The biggest non-cash swing: 7 more vacation days per year in Madrid (statutory).
These numbers use one scenario's assumptions. Plug in your own salary, family size, and lifestyle.
Open the interactive calculator to run your own →No signup. Your salary stays in your browser — we never see it.
Moving from Austin to Madrid
$150,000 in Austin is worth €154,817 in Madrid on a household net-cash basis. That is the equivalence figure this tool solves for: the Madrid gross salary whose take-home, after taxes and local costs, lands in the same place as your Austin take-home. Most people are surprised by how large the number is. Most of the gap is taxes.
The effective tax rate goes from 21.4% in Austin to 33.5% in Madrid. That 12.1-point jump is what the equivalence solver is working against when it finds the matching gross salary.
Healthcare in Madrid is universal. Austin households pay $3,413 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs per year, and that spending disappears in Madrid. It won't show up in a take-home comparison, but it's real money.
Madrid workers get 22 vacation days per year. Austin averages 15. That 7-day gap does not appear in any salary comparison, but at a typical professional's daily rate it represents thousands of dollars of time that stays in your life rather than being bought back by your employer.
Living costs (housing, food, transit, discretionary) total $39,496 in Austin and €35,496 in Madrid at these scenario defaults. The breakdown table shows each line item separately, with source citations and last-updated dates available on hover.
Understand what's behind these numbers
Common questions
How much do you need to earn in Madrid to match a $150,000 salary in Austin?
About €154,817. cityparity solves for the Madrid gross salary whose net cash (after taxes, housing, childcare, healthcare, and the rest) equals what you keep in Austin. It's an equivalence, not a raw conversion.
Is healthcare free in Madrid?
Madrid has universal healthcare, so there are no US-style premiums or large deductibles. cityparity counts that as real money you don't spend, which is part of why the equivalent salary is lower than the raw number suggests.
How much vacation and parental leave do you get in Madrid?
Madrid has about 36 paid days off a year (vacation plus public holidays) and 16 weeks of parental leave. cityparity surfaces these as deltas rather than dollars, because time off is part of the real comparison.
Run your own numbers in the interactive calculator →