Can a Site Reliability Engineer afford to live in Boston?

Excellent48% of take-home left to save — you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Site Reliability Engineer · Boston
$129,849
Income tax (~31% effective)
United States
– $40,233
Take-home pay
$7,468/mo
$89,616
Living costs (1 person)
$3,920/mo · derived
– $47,040
Savings potential
$3,548/mo · 48% of take-home
$42,576

Single professional, after-tax. Salary − tax − living costs = what you could save each year.

Full salary breakdown →Is this a good salary in Boston? →Compare Boston with another city →

How we calculated this

• Salary: BLS OES median for Site Reliability Engineer, adjusted for Boston.

• Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~31%). Official calculator.

• Living costs: derived from cost-of-living index for a single professional.

Planning estimates, not financial or tax advice. Updated 2026. Your situation will differ.