Can a Site Reliability Engineer afford to live in Madison?

Excellent53% of take-home left to save — you can save aggressively here.
Median salary (gross)
Site Reliability Engineer · Madison
$101,268
Income tax (~28% effective)
United States
– $28,787
Take-home pay
$6,040/mo
$72,481
Living costs (1 person)
$2,860/mo · derived
– $34,320
Savings potential
$3,180/mo · 53% of take-home
$38,161

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

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

How we calculated this

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

• Tax: United States single-filer effective rate (~28%). 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.