I am finishing my PhD in Europe and considering postdoc in US. Labs from Stanford and HMS/MGH are interested. However, I am really confused with salary and cost of living. I have a spouse who cannot work in US for 3-5 months because of waiting for work permit. Thus we don't know whether we can survive with only 1 salary. What is real amount of money (net) after tax reduction, insurance,...,you get? Is it possible to find affordable living in Boston with less than 30 min commuting?

Are you from the UK? There's some kind of reciprocal tax waiver between the US and UK for the first 2 years of residency. Either you don't pay federal tax or state tax, I can't remember which way round, but it worked out that I was only paying a small % of my salary in tax when I worked there for a year. Less than 10%. It's best if you contact the admin department of the universities and ask.

Thank you very much. I will look for that.