CAN YOUR EMPLOYEES AFFORD TO LIVE IN UTAH? You might make more money in Silicon Valley, but it'll go a lot farther here.

• Author: Andra, Jacob

Allison Clements, an attorney who heads energy marketing policy for a San Francisco-based foundation, moved to Salt Lake City from Brooklyn two years ago and she's still shocked by the relative affordability of Utah. "When we think about where else we might move," she says, "we have trouble coming up with another city in the US that matches up with the combination of affordable living, outdoor access, and culture that Salt Lake City provides."

Compared to the coasts, Utah's cost-of-living is indeed a steal. But is it a good deal in terms of total value--comparing cost of living to earning potential and measuring how the two shake out?

UTAH OFFERS LOWER WAGES THAN BIGGER CITIES

"Utah's wages are much lower than the rest of tech-dominated communities in the US," says Parry Jarman, vice president at Ivanti. Though he believes wages will rise over the next few years in order to compete with markets in Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Austin, right now Utah is not competitive in terms of wages alone.

That being said, the cost of living here is much less expensive. "In New York City or London it wouldn't be surprising for an investment professional to earn two times what they earn in Salt Lake City," says Peter Madsen, chief investment officer for the Utah School & Institutional Trust Funds Office. "[But] the cost of living is four times [what is spent in Utah]."

In other words, if you move to the big city you might earn twice the income but receive half the value.

But wages aren't the only consideration for employees looking to move to the state. Two years ago, Mr. Madsen and his family returned to Utah after a four-year stint in London, only to discover there were much fewer high level job opportunities available to him in Salt Lake City. Though big firms like Goldman Sachs were locating an increasing amount of their operations to Utah, they tended to be "lower cost and lower value-add jobs."

"While living in Salt Lake City is less expensive and has good quality-of-life," Mr. Madsen says, "career trajectories can be limited relative to a more expensive city."

BUT YOUR MONEY MIGHT GO FARTHER IN UTAH

Online, one can find tables of the average salary by state. Some of them, like the one by Rasmussen College, have a second table called "average salary, adjusted for cost of living." It's sort of like wind chill: feels like $100,000.

Washington, at the top of both tables, boasts a $110,000 average salary, which feels like $106,000. California comes...