Folks in Erie often complain about the high state and local tax rates.

But here I offer a glass-is-half-full assessment — Erieites, on average, pay less in federal taxes than those in higher wage communities.

A new study by David Y. Albouy, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, finds that workers in high-wage cities pay 30 percent or more in federal wage taxes than similar workers in equivalent jobs in lower-wage cities.

Since Erie’s per capita income levels are resting somewhere around 85 percent of the national average, and with wages that are typically below the scale of other cities, it stands to reason that Erie workers are sending less of their income to Uncle Sam than their counterparts in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

I’m not necessarily sure this is a good thing, since that means workers are also bringing home less money. But it does further lower the cost of living and working in Erie.