Let's talk money. Let's be real. Go to Indeed today and look up what a Mechanical Designer makes in Phoenix. The headline says $91,535, right in line with the national average. Now scroll down the same page to the list of highest-paying cities. Phoenix is listed at $150,994. Same website. Same job title. Same city. A difference of almost $60,000. Check Payscale and the same Phoenix Mechanical Designer averages $63,036. That’s a spread of nearly $88,000 for one job in one city