London vs Dublin vs New York: Where a Finance Salary Goes Furthest in 2026

London vs Dublin vs New York in 2026: London and Dublin come out almost level, and New York leaves the most money only if your rent stays near the official benchmark. We modelled a financial analyst in each city: gross salary, minus income tax and social insurance, minus a year's rent. An early-career analyst ends up with about £18,800 a year in London and €19,500 in Dublin. In New York, the same analyst keeps about $40,900 on a benchmark rent, or $24,800 renting at the Brooklyn median.

Below are the salary sources, tax workings and rent assumptions behind those numbers, so you can rerun them with your own offer.

Key takeaways

• After tax and a year's average rent, an early-career financial analyst keeps about £18,800 in London and €19,500 in Dublin: 30% of gross in both cities.
• In New York the same analyst keeps about $40,900 on HUD's benchmark one-bed rent, but only $24,800 renting at Brooklyn's median.
• New York takes the largest tax share (29.4% at $103,140), but only about four percentage points more than London.
• Rent takes about 60% of an early-career analyst's take-home pay in London and Dublin when living alone.
• Rerun the sums with a real rent quote: rent, not tax, decides which city comes out ahead.

The short answer

Euro conversions use the European Central Bank reference rates for 21 October 2026: €1 = £0.83825 = $1.1234.

The result in one line: New York's higher salary survives its higher tax, but whether it survives the rent depends on where you live.

The salaries we used

We wanted the same job in all three cities. Financial analyst is the role with published figures in each one. For pay further up the ladder, see our FP&A salaries from analyst to finance manager. We used two levels: early career, and an experienced analyst.

Sources: London figures come from Morgan McKinley's 2026 UK salary guide. Dublin figures come from Morgan McKinley's 2026 Ireland guide. New York figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, for financial and investment analysts in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area.

The New York figures come from a different kind of source. BLS reports percentiles of actual wages, not recruiter bands by years of experience. We used the 25th percentile as a stand-in for early career, which is our assumption, not a BLS label. All figures are base salary with no bonus.

Tax and social insurance: the workings

Assumptions for every city: single, no children, an employee with one job, no pension contributions, no student loan, salary as the only income. We applied each country's rates for a full year.

London (England, 2026/27 tax year). From GOV.UK income tax rates, the personal allowance is £12,570. Income from £12,571 to £50,270 is taxed at 20%, and from £50,271 to £125,140 at 40%. For employee National Insurance, GOV.UK's rates are 8% on monthly earnings between £1,048 and £4,189, and 2% above that. We worked it out monthly and multiplied by 12.

Dublin (2026). From Revenue's tax rates and credits, a single person pays 20% on the first €44,000 and 40% on the balance. They then deduct a personal tax credit of €2,000 and an employee (PAYE) credit of €2,000. For USC in 2026, the rates are 0.5% on the first €12,012, 2% on the next €16,688, 3% on the next €41,344 and 8% on the balance. PRSI is 4.35% of all earnings from 1 October 2026, according to Citizens Information. It was 4.2% before that date, so applying 4.35% to the whole year slightly overstates 2026 PRSI.

New York City (2026). Federal income tax follows IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32: a $16,100 standard deduction, then 10% to $12,400, 12% to $50,400, 22% to $105,700 and 24% to $201,775. FICA follows IRS Topic 751: 6.2% Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026, plus 1.45% Medicare.

For New York State, we used the 2026 rates in New York Tax Law §601: 3.9% up to $8,500, rising through 4.4%, 5.15% and 5.4% to 5.9% from $80,650. We applied them after the state's $8,000 standard deduction for a single filer. Above $107,650 of income, New York phases out the benefit of its lower brackets. We applied that recapture using the worksheet method in the 2025 IT-201 instructions, at the 2026 rate. New York City resident tax uses the city schedule in the same instructions: 3.078% to $12,000, 3.762% to $25,000, 3.819% to $50,000 and 3.876% above. Small credits are left out.

New York takes the largest share, because three governments tax the same salary. But the gap is smaller than many people expect: about four percentage points more than London at each level.

Rent: what we assumed and why

Rent figures don't line up neatly across countries, so we used each city's official or most-cited measure and labelled it.

These measures differ in ways that matter:

• London's figure covers all existing tenancies. New lets usually cost more than the average.
• Dublin's covers new tenancies only, which is closer to what a mover pays.
• HUD's Fair Market Rent is a federal benchmark across five New York City boroughs plus Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties.
• The Brooklyn median is closer to what someone signing a new lease in a popular borough pays. The same report put Manhattan's median at $4,900.

That's why we show New York twice. Renting alone in a central New York neighbourhood costs far more than the HUD benchmark.

London vs Dublin vs New York: what's left after tax and rent

Three things stand out:

1. London and Dublin are close. At early career they leave the same 30% of gross. At the experienced level London leaves slightly more, because its recruiter band rises faster than Dublin's.
2. Rent takes more than half of take-home pay in London and Dublin for an early-career analyst living alone: 59.9% in London and 59.0% in Dublin. Sharing a flat changes these results more than anything else in the model.
3. New York's advantage depends on rent. On Brooklyn median rent, an early-career analyst there keeps less than one in London, and only slightly more than one in Dublin in euro terms. By the experienced level, New York pulls clearly ahead even on market rent.

What this model leaves out

This is a like-for-like sketch, not a personal budget. These items can swing the result, and some of them are large:

• Health insurance. US employees usually pay part of an employer health plan premium, which the UK and Ireland don't charge in the same way. We haven't deducted it.
• Pension contributions. These reduce taxable pay in all three countries, so they lower your tax as well as your take-home pay.
• Bonuses. All figures are base salary. In New York finance roles especially, bonuses can be a large part of total pay.
• Other living costs. Commuting, food, utilities and childcare all differ. We've only modelled tax and rent.
• Visas and moving costs. If you're relocating across borders, the job has to come with the right to work there. Your qualification matters too: see which of ACA, ACCA and CPA pays more in each market.

How to use this when comparing offers

Swap in your own numbers. Take the gross salary on the offer and apply the rates above, or use HMRC's, Revenue's or the IRS's own calculators. Then subtract a rent quote for where you'd actually live. That gives you a better comparison than converting salaries at the exchange rate.

A simple way to do it:

1. Write down the gross base salary on each offer. Leave out any bonus unless it's guaranteed.
2. Apply the income tax and social insurance rates listed in the workings section above. Remember that New York adds a state tax and a city tax on top of the federal one.
3. Subtract 12 months of a real rent quote, not a citywide average.
4. Convert what's left into one currency, using the same day's rate for both offers.
5. Compare the results. Then do it again with the salary you'd expect two years in, because the gap can change as pay rises. Our Big Four salary progression from associate to manager shows how fast pay rises in the UK, Ireland and US. In our model, New York's lead grew from early career to experienced level.

If you're weighing a move, the job still has to come first. Start by reading what employers in the new city ask for, and tailor your CV to it. Our walkthrough on tailoring a CV to a job description shows how. The financial analyst CV example is written for UK adverts and adapts easily for Dublin. For a sense of how long a search can take, see our breakdown of how many applications it takes to get a finance job in the UK. And before you interview with an overseas team, practise with questions for a real job.

Of everything in the model, rent moves the result most. Tax differences between the three cities are a few percentage points, but rent can decide which city comes out ahead. Before you accept an offer abroad, get two real rent quotes in the area you'd live in, and rerun the table above with them.

Frequently asked questions

Is a London or Dublin finance salary worth more?

In our 2026 model they're close. An early-career financial analyst on £62,500 in London keeps about £18,752 after tax and average rent; one on €65,000 in Dublin keeps about €19,470. Both are 30% of gross. At ECB rates for 21 October 2026, London's figure is about €22,370, so London edges ahead.

Is Dublin more expensive than London for rent?

On the measures we used, rent is almost identical in cash terms. ONS put London's average private rent at £2,338 a month in September 2026. The RTB Rent Index put County Dublin's average for new tenancies at €2,335 in Q1 2026. In euro, London's figure is higher. London's figure also covers existing tenancies, which usually cost less than new lets.

How much tax do you pay on a finance salary in New York City?

On $103,140 in 2026, a single New York City resident pays about $13,861 federal income tax, $5,045 state tax, $3,563 city tax and $7,890 FICA. That's $30,359, or 29.4% of gross, using IRS, New York State and New York City rates with standard deductions. Health insurance and pension contributions are not included.

What is the average salary in London vs Dublin for finance?

For a financial analyst with up to three years' experience, Morgan McKinley's 2026 guides give £55,000–£70,000 at London large corporates and €60,000–€70,000 in Dublin. With three to five years' experience the bands are £70,000–£80,000 and €70,000–€75,000. New York's BLS median for financial and investment analysts is $128,930 (May 2025).