Highest paid workers in NYC

As you say, Chai Tea, it's all relative. It's not about how many dollars you have, it's about what those dollars will buy. A million dollars a week doesn't come to much if a loaf of bread costs 200 bucks and to buy a gallon of gas entails taking out a second mortgage. NYC is one of the most expensive places on earth to live. People move there because that's where pay is the highest. But it doesn't add up unless you get into the very highest income brackets. Conversely, some people move to places where housing costs and other necessities of life are the lowest. But then they discover that pay for any kind of work they're used to is commensurately lower, too.

Exactly.

I supposed what I'm wondering is, where do you get the most bang for your buck?
where is the quality of living highest?

When I had to spend a year in Okeechobee Fla (hey, it's the speckled perch capital of the world) someone making $8.00 an hour was doing pretty well.
Someone whose family income was $40,000 had a very nice home.
However - If you wanted to go out to eat, you basically had a choice of Bubba's Big Biscuts or the Dairy Freeze.
If you went the hospital and was seen by the nurse, that exactly what it was, THE nurse.

Unbeleivably to me, people actually moved TO this town, and not just retirees.
So of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So, qualifying standard of living: Availability of good medical care, more than just 'adequate' housing, common sources of culture such as libraries, even small museums with scheduled events, movie houses, etc.

???????

I think Money magazine does an annual issue discussing the top 100 places to live taking cost of living, culture, medical services, etc into account. They also do one for the top places to retire putting greater emphasis on the needs of the elderly. I no longer subscribe so I haven't seen the list in awhile.

Of course then there are the New Yorkers living 8 in a room working at Burger King or McDonalds or at sewing machines in the garment district or had low pay retail stores like Daffy's or Strawberrys or stuffing envelopes in mailing houses. Sure some clowns are overpaid and in New York with the whole Stock Market and financial district there are some highly paid individuals who can shell out 3 thousand bucks a month for a one room box with a view of a brick wall but there is an equally large number of the underpaid, uninsured.