Your monthly budget in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia had 1,573,916 residents in 2024, a median household income of $60,521 and a median gross rent of $1,500 a month, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. New York City, ninety minutes up the Turnpike, had a median rent of $1,811 and a median household income of $81,228 in the same survey. That gap is why people move here, and also why a Philly budget is not automatically easy: income is lower too.

The city is often described as a finance town because of its banks, insurers and asset managers, but the largest employers tell a different story. The University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Temple University Hospital lead the list, and “eds and meds” has become the city’s dominant employment sector, the City Controller’s office reported in September 2025. Many of those jobs run on shifts, differentials and academic calendars.

This page is for the nurse at Penn or Jefferson, the research coordinator at CHOP, the Temple staff member and the New York transplant comparing a lower rent with a higher wage tax. By the end you will know what the city and state take, which local costs most budgets miss, and what your real free money is.

The wage tax, every paycheck

Philadelphia’s wage tax is withheld from every paycheck. For residents it is 3.735% from July 1, 2026, and 3.425% for nonresidents who work in the city, according to the City of Philadelphia. Pennsylvania adds a flat 3.07% state income tax. On a $5,000 gross month, the wage tax alone is about $187.

For residents, the city tax applies regardless of where the employer is, which matters for anyone working remotely for a company outside the city. Read the net deposit on your stub and plan on that.

Car insurance and the cost of not riding SEPTA

Bankrate’s 2025 report ranked Philadelphia second among the most expensive metros for full-coverage car insurance, at an average of $4,753 a year, behind only Detroit. That is a strong argument for SEPTA where it works. The base fare for buses, trolleys and the subway rose to $2.90 in September 2025, according to 6abc, and many hospital and university employers offer transit benefits through payroll. Compare a month of rides, a pass and a car honestly in your plan.

The smaller local taxes

The combined sales tax in Philadelphia is 8%: 6% for the state and 2% for the city. Clothing and most unprepared groceries are exempt in Pennsylvania, which helps. Sweetened drinks carry the city’s beverage tax of 1.5 cents per ounce. None of these are large, but they add up in the grocery and household lines of a month.

Shifts, differentials and the academic year

Hospital paychecks often mix base pay, evening and night differentials, weekend premiums and extra-shift incentives. University paychecks can include nine-month contracts for some faculty and seasonal hours for campus staff. In both cases the stable part of the pay should carry the fixed bills, and the rest should arrive with a job already assigned.

A Philly month, line by line

• Rent or mortgage, plus renters or homeowners insurance.
• PECO electricity and PGW gas, with a winter heating peak, plus water.
• SEPTA passes or fares, or a car payment, insurance, gas and parking.
• Phone and internet.
• Childcare, which can be harder to arrange around twelve-hour shifts.
• Student loans, common among health and academic workers.
• Card payments and any personal loans.

Example one: a nurse at a Center City hospital

The figures in both examples are illustrative. Brianna is a staff nurse working three twelve-hour shifts a week, including a regular night differential. After federal tax, FICA, Pennsylvania’s 3.07%, the wage tax and benefits, she takes home $5,250 a month. Extra shifts add about $600 a month after taxes when she picks them up.

Fixed costs: rent for a one-bedroom in Fishtown $1,650, renters insurance $15, PECO and PGW averaged $140, water $45, SEPTA rides with her employer’s pre-tax transit benefit $60, phone and internet $120, student loans $420, credit card payment $150. Total: $2,600. Weekend reserve: $300.

$5,250 minus $2,600 minus $300 leaves $2,350 of real free money, without extra shifts.

She sold her car when she moved from the suburbs. Her last insurance bill was $310 a month and parking near the hospital was $250. Those two lines alone were $560 a month, more than she spends on transit, utilities and her phone combined. Extra shift pay now goes to the student loans.

Enter your base pay after the wage tax, and see what your month leaves before extra shifts →

Example two: a CHOP research coordinator and a remote New York employee

Daniela is a clinical research coordinator at CHOP and takes home $3,700 a month. Her husband, Sam, works remotely for a company in Manhattan and takes home $5,900 after federal, state and Philadelphia wage tax withholding. They moved from Queens to West Philadelphia last year.

Combined income: $9,600.

Fixed costs: rent for a three-bedroom row house $2,100, renters insurance $20, PECO and PGW averaged $210, water $60, one car with insurance $560, gas and parking $140, SEPTA for Daniela $60, Sam’s monthly Amtrak trips to the New York office $180, phone and internet $150, daycare $1,300, student loans $500. Total: $5,280. Weekend reserve: $450.

$9,600 minus $5,280 minus $450 leaves $3,870.

In Queens, their rent had been $3,100 for less space, and their free money had been about $2,500. The car and the train trips cost them more here, but the rent difference was larger. They set a goal for a down payment on a row house and send $1,500 a month to it.

About Monthly

Monthly is a free, manual budgeting app for the web and Android. It does not connect to your bank, does not move money and does not give financial or tax advice. You enter take-home pay, extra shifts, fixed costs, installments and debts, and it shows what is free to spend. Savings goals, like a down payment, live under Patrimonio with a target, a date and logged contributions. The guide on stopping the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and the overview of why rent keeps rising faster than paychecks add context for Philly renters.

Real free money and your next step

In Philadelphia, a lower rent than New York comes with a wage tax and, for drivers, some of the highest insurance in the country. Real free money is what remains after the deposit that survives those taxes covers fixed costs and a weekend reserve, with extra shifts and differentials sent to goals when they arrive. Build that month once, and every move, job offer or lease renewal can be tested against it.

Set up your month in Monthly with your post-wage-tax deposit, and compare a car month with a SEPTA month →