Stay or go?

Compare a job in Honolulu with one in a mainland city after taxes, rent and flights home.

+$9,540

The Seattle job pays $12,000 more. After taxes, rent and 2 flights home, you would keep that much more per year in Seattle than in Honolulu.

Honolulu

Salary$60,000

Taxes− $12,366

Rent− $24,192

Left for everything else$23,442

Seattle

Salary$72,000

Taxes− $12,518

Rent− $25,200

Flights home− $1,300

Left for everything else$32,982

Money is one column. The other side of the ledger never fits in a calculator: ʻohana nearby, childcare from grandparents, the ocean, a place you belong, and the chance to build something at home.

22,447

fewer people lived in Hawaiʻi in July 2025 than in April 2020. UHERO finds more residents left for the mainland than arrived in 23 of the past 25 years, and argues low pay matters as much as high prices.

37%

of Hawaiʻi households surveyed for the 2024 ALICE report had considered leaving the state.

DBEDT, Census Vintage 2025 estimates; Aloha United Way, ALICE in Hawaiʻi 2024.

Listen to Stay or Go?

›How this is calculated

Taxes use 2026 federal single-filer brackets, Social Security and Medicare, and either Hawaiʻi's 2026 brackets or a flat approximation of each mainland state's effective rate (none in Washington, Nevada or Texas). City income taxes such as New York City's are folded into that flat rate.

Default rents are approximate one-bedroom asking rents. Honolulu uses HUD's 2026 Fair Market Rent. Flight prices are rough round-trip fares to Honolulu.

Honolulu rent: HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents, FY2026.

For learning only. Kuleana Finance explains how money works. It does not tell anyone what to buy or sell.

Next toolStart at 16