[astura]

Salary discussions are before taxes because your tax situation is highly personal in the US. I just ran some numbers

An unmarried person making $150,000 In San Francisco would pay $37,816 in taxes for a net income of $112,184.

If that same person was married with a non-working spouse the same person would pay only $29,836 in taxes for a net income of $120,164.

This person could also legally reduce their tax burden by contributing to retirement accounts. Let's take the married San Franciscan if they maxed out their 401k contributions they'd pay $25,546 in taxes for a net income of $124,454. If they moved to Texas then they'd pay $25,546 in taxes, or a net of $124,454

Those are just no frills situations with standard deduction, employees can have itemized deductions that reduce their tax burden more.

Calculations come from https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes