The salary needed to move abroad with kids: the same $150,000 lived single and as a family of four, in four city pairs
By Skyler Bissell · September 26, 2026 · 11 min read
A single person on USD 150,000 in Austin needs €160,909 in Berlin to keep the same net cash, which is more than the €129,450 the salary converts to. A family of four on the same USD 150,000, two earners and children aged 3 and 7, keeps $48,040 a year in Austin after the budget, and in Berlin on €138,000 it keeps $59,848. The family is $11,808 ahead before anyone solves anything. That is the whole shape of this page: one salary, two households, four moves, and the kids push the answer the other way from the one most people expect.
The salary needed to move abroad with kids is the gross pay that leaves a family the same cash at the end of the year in the new city as in the old one, after that country's income tax and contributions, its rent for the bedrooms the family needs, its childcare at the ages the children are, its healthcare as it is billed, and the child benefit it pays. It is a different number from the one a single person needs for the same move, and the difference is mostly two lines: what a nursery costs and how a doctor is paid for.
Two households, never one household changing shape. The single is our published base case: one earner, no children, two bedrooms, 6% into retirement, one trip home a year, and the engine solves the destination salary that matches their net cash exactly. The family of four is the same USD 150,000 as a household, split 100/60 between two earners, children aged 3 and 7, two bedrooms, the same 6% and the same trip. The engine cannot solve one salary for two earners without inventing how it splits, so the family is read from both sides instead: what it keeps at home, and what it keeps at the destination on a fixed restatement of the same USD 150,000 (EUR 138,000 in Berlin and Amsterdam, GBP 118,501 in London, SEK 1,575,000 in Stockholm, the ratios our family pages have used since September). The single's number is a solve. The family's is a position, and the calculator turns it into a solve for your own household at the end.
TL;DR
- In Berlin and Amsterdam the single needs more than the currency conversion, because Austin and Seattle have no state income tax and cheaper two-bedroom rent. The family of four is ahead in both on a restatement of the same salary. The four pairs.
- The swing is childcare and healthcare together: from $16,887 between New York and London to $51,864 between San Francisco and Stockholm. The table.
- London is the pair where the family gains least, because a London nursery is priced like an American one. What moves the family's bar.
Four moves, each lived twice
Austin to Berlin. The single keeps $77,368 in Austin at a 22.7% tax rate, and needs €160,909 in Berlin, where the rate on that salary is 40.8%. In dollars the bar is $186,453, well above the offer they are leaving, because Texas takes no income tax and German social insurance takes a great deal. The family of four keeps $48,040 in Austin after $18,300 of childcare and $12,885 of healthcare, with $4,400 of child tax credit coming back at filing. In Berlin on €138,000 the same family pays €720 for the Kita (Berlin charges food money and nothing else from the age of one), €1,340 out of pocket because the health insurance is already inside a 35.7% household tax rate, and receives €6,216 of Kindergeld. It keeps €51,648, $59,848, and is $11,808 ahead of its Austin self. Childcare and healthcare together are $28,798 cheaper, which is more than the extra tax costs.
New York to London. The single keeps $27,924 in New York, where the two-bedroom rent eats most of the salary, and needs £96,083 in London, $130,193, which is under the £110,700 conversion because London's rent and tax on that salary come in below New York's. The family in New York runs $28,171 short of covering the budget: $38,400 of childcare and $14,828 of healthcare on top of $57,816 of rent leave the year in deficit on this income. In London on £118,501 it keeps £366, so roughly break-even, and is $28,668 ahead. But look at the lines: London childcare is £25,200, $34,146, for the same two children, so the gain comes almost entirely from healthcare (£1,620 against $14,828) and rent, and the child benefit after the high-income charge is £701. This is the pair where children change the answer least.
Seattle to Amsterdam. The single keeps $57,343 in Seattle and needs €165,972 in Amsterdam, $192,320, the highest bar of the four, again because Washington has no income tax and Dutch tax on that salary runs at 40.5%. The family keeps $5,360 in Seattle after $32,280 of childcare and $14,828 of healthcare. In Amsterdam on €138,000 the childcare is €14,760 after the kinderopvangtoeslag, healthcare is €5,020 in premiums and excess, the kinderbijslag pays €2,388, and the family keeps €20,503, $23,758: $18,397 ahead. The single's bar is more than a quarter above the offer; the family is ahead on a restatement only a little above it.
San Francisco to Stockholm. The single keeps $31,483 in San Francisco and needs only SEK 979,602 in Stockholm, $103,116, far under the SEK 1,425,000 conversion, because Stockholm's two-bedroom rent is less than half of San Francisco's. The family in San Francisco runs $22,975 short on this income, with $41,280 of childcare and $58,224 of rent. In Stockholm on SEK 1,575,000 childcare at the maxtaxa cap is SEK 30,936, healthcare out of pocket is SEK 12,000, barnbidrag pays SEK 30,000, and the family keeps SEK 576,164, $60,649. It is $83,624 ahead of its San Francisco self, the largest swing on the page, and the two kid lines alone account for $51,864 of it.
The four pairs in one table
| Pair, same USD 150,000 | Single keeps at home | Single needs abroad | Family keeps at home | Family keeps abroad, at the restatement | Childcare and healthcare swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin to Berlin | $77,368 | €160,909 | $48,040 | €51,648 on €138,000 | $28,798 toward Berlin |
| New York to London | $27,924 | £96,083 | -$28,171 | £366 on £118,501 | $16,887 toward London |
| Seattle to Amsterdam | $57,343 | €165,972 | $5,360 | €20,503 on €138,000 | $24,188 toward Amsterdam |
| San Francisco to Stockholm | $31,483 | SEK 979,602 | -$22,975 | SEK 576,164 on SEK 1,575,000 | $51,864 toward Stockholm |
Engine figures, 2026. Single: the published base scenario, USD 150,000, one earner, no children, two bedrooms, 6% retirement, priced at home with no trips and at the destination with one; "needs abroad" is the solved equivalent salary. Family: two earners at USD 93,750 and 56,250, children aged 3 and 7, two bedrooms, 6% retirement, one trip home on both legs, the destination read at a fixed restatement of the household's USD 150,000 rather than at a solve. Net cash is what remains after tax, rent, childcare, healthcare, transit, food, discretionary spending and the trip, with child benefit added back. A negative figure means the budget exceeds the income on that basis. The swing is childcare plus healthcare at home minus the same two lines abroad, in dollars.
Read the two "keeps at home" columns against each other and the pattern is the one the second income trap describes from the other end: in every American city the family of four keeps far less than the single on the same household income, because the second earner's pay is mostly consumed by the nursery and the extra premium. Read the two "abroad" columns and the gap closes or reverses, because the destination absorbs the two lines that caused it. That is why a single reader and a parent reading the same comparison page can both be right about whether Europe pays.
What moves the family's bar, in order
- Childcare, and whether the destination subsidises it. Berlin charges food money, Stockholm caps the fee under the maxtaxa, Amsterdam refunds most of the fee through the kinderopvangtoeslag, and London does none of these for a 3-year-old in full-time care. The four destinations sit in that order on this line, and the family's gain sits in the same order. The cross-country picture is in childcare costs by country.
- How healthcare is billed. In the American cities it is a premium and a deductible that scale with household size and sit outside the tax rate; in Berlin and Amsterdam it is inside the payroll contribution or a flat adult premium, and in London and Stockholm it is a small out-of-pocket line. A family pays for it either way; the question is which column it appears in, and a comparison that reads only the tax rate misses it.
- Who files. Germany taxes the couple jointly and the split lowers the household rate; the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden tax each earner alone. The second earner's own rate, which is the number that decides whether the second job is worth keeping after the move, is priced on this same household in whether it is worth working after paying for childcare.
- Child benefit, last. Kindergeld, kinderbijslag and barnbidrag arrive monthly and untaxed; the American credit arrives once a year at filing; the British benefit is tapered away above GBP 60,000 of one parent's income and is small by the time this household sees it. Real money, and the smallest of the three lines everywhere on this page.
Bedrooms are the lever this page held still on purpose. Both households rent two bedrooms, which is tight for a family of four and is the honest way to keep the single and the family on one footing; a third bedroom raises the family's rent in every one of these eight cities and raises it most in New York and San Francisco, which would widen every American deficit above. The rent line is why the single's bar is under the conversion for London and Stockholm and over it for Berlin and Amsterdam, and the rent line moves with bedrooms before it moves with anything else.
What this page does not do is add the single's solve to the family's swing and call it the family's number. The family's bar is its own solve on its own household, and for a two-earner family the engine wants to know how the two salaries split before it will give one, which the calculator asks and this page cannot. The method behind the single's figure, step by step on one pair, is in what salary do I need to move abroad, and the definition it rests on is in the pillar on the equivalent salary abroad. The kid lines themselves, city by city on this household, are the subject of whether it is cheaper to raise a child in Europe.
FAQ
Do I need a higher salary abroad if I have kids?
For a move from a US city to the European cities on this page, usually the opposite. The two lines that grow with children, childcare and healthcare, are the two lines that shrink most on the European side, so a family of four on the same USD 150,000 arrives further ahead than a single does. The single's bar in Berlin or Amsterdam is above the plain currency conversion; the family is already ahead at a restatement of the same salary. The exception is a destination whose childcare is priced like the US, and London is the closest to that in our set.
Why is the family's equivalent salary not printed on this page?
Because the family here has two earners, and an equivalent salary is one number. Our engine solves the single earner's bar exactly; for a two-earner household it would have to invent how the solved total splits between the two salaries, so it declines. The page reads the family's position from both sides instead, and the calculator solves your own household, including a partner's salary, when you run it.
Does the child benefit abroad count as income for the comparison?
Yes, as cash the household receives, on both sides. The American figure is the child tax credit as it lands at filing, USD 2,200 per child for this household; the European figures are the monthly benefits Kindergeld, kinderbijslag, barnbidrag and the UK child benefit after the high-income charge. None of them is large next to the childcare line, and the page treats them as the smallest of the three kid lines.
What if only one of us will work after the move?
Then the answer can move a long way, in either direction, and this page does not compute it. A stay-at-home partner removes the second income and most of the childcare bill at once, and in a country that taxes couples jointly, Germany above all, it also lowers the tax on the remaining salary. The pages on the second income trap and on whether it is worth working after paying for childcare price that choice city by city on this same household.
To get the family's own number, run Austin to Berlin with two children in the calculator, add your partner's salary, and the page solves the bar for that household; Austin vs Berlin for a family and San Francisco vs Stockholm for a family carry the published family case beside the lines above. The figure either one prints for the destination is the bar an offer has to clear, and it is not an offer.
Sources. Tax: IRS, child tax credit (USD 2,200 per child from 2025 under Rev. Proc. 2025-32); section 32a EStG for Ehegattensplitting via gesetze-im-internet.de; HMRC, income tax rates; Belastingdienst; Skatteverket. Child benefit: BMFSFJ, Kindergeld (EUR 259 a month per child); SVB, kinderbijslag; Forsakringskassan, barnbidrag (SEK 1,250 a month per child); gov.uk, High Income Child Benefit Charge. Childcare: the Berlin Senate's fee-free Kita with food money, the Stockholm maxtaxa per Skolverket, the kinderopvangtoeslag tables per the Belastingdienst, and London nursery rates per Coram Family and Childcare, each as recorded in data/_meta.json; the American healthcare line is calibrated on KFF's employer health benefits survey. Every stored value carries its own source and date in the meta file, per the methodology.
Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; tax rates, childcare fees, benefit amounts and exchange rates move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. Where our comparison pages quote an equivalent salary, it is the bar an offer has to clear in the destination city and it is not a job offer. See the methodology.