Additional Geographic Assessor Topics (Listed Alphabetically)

In some cases, the cost-of-living between the base and destination cities will be reversed in an ownership situation. For this reason, please refer to the Relocation Assessor for detailed cost-of-living analyses. It is important to note that the original Two City Comparison table in the Geographic Assessor only reports summary cost-of-living differentials based on the rental housing market and benchmark assumptions for each earnings level; the updated Two City Comparison table in the enhanced Geographic Assessor includes cost-of-living data for both rental and home ownership scenarios (contact info.eri@erieri.com to subscribe to the enhanced Geographic Assessor). The Relocation Assessor was specifically designed to build relocation packages and reports rental and ownership differentials, along with itemized break-outs of the expenditure categories that can be modified by the user. While you should use the Geographic Assessor to set wage and salary levels based on geographic differentials, the Relocation Assessor is better suited to determine COLAs.

Defining COL Benchmarks

In order to set wage and salary levels, please review salary data for the city "worked in" using the Geographic Assessor. However, please review cost-of-living data for areas "lived in" (usually the surrounding suburbs, outside of downtown city limits) using the Relocation Assessor. By doing this, you will avoid the pitfalls associated with trying to award COLAs, especially those for high-cost cities.

High-Cost Example

Housing in New York-Manhattan is much more expensive than it is in surrounding New York or New Jersey suburbs. Are your Manhattan employees actually living in Manhattan, or should you be reviewing the more reasonably priced suburbs in New York and New Jersey to define a "New York "City" area COL benchmark?