Most salary negotiations happen on gut feel, vague market comparisons, and the anxiety of asking for more money. There is a better approach — one grounded in research, local cost data, and a clear understanding of what your income actually needs to accomplish. This guide shows you how to use living wage benchmarks as part of a structured, evidence-based negotiation strategy, whether you are evaluating a first offer, pushing for a raise, or comparing roles across cities.
What This Guide Covers
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Why Walking In with Data Changes Everything
Salary negotiations make most people uncomfortable for a straightforward reason: it feels like you are asking for a favor. You are telling someone in a position of authority that you want more, and that can feel presumptuous, risky, or even rude — depending on how you were raised to think about money and work.
Data changes the dynamic. When you anchor a negotiation in objective external research rather than personal desire, you shift the conversation from “I want more” to “here is what the evidence says about appropriate compensation.” That is a fundamentally different framing. One invites the employer to evaluate your worth on their terms. The other gives both parties a shared reference point outside the relationship.
The living wage is one of the most underused but genuinely powerful pieces of data you can bring to this conversation. It tells an employer — with research backing from a credible academic institution — what a worker in this specific location needs to earn just to cover basic living expenses. It is not a demand. It is context. And context, used well, is one of the most effective tools in any negotiation.
That said, living wage data works best as part of a layered approach, not as a standalone argument. This guide walks you through how to use it alongside market salary data, your experience and contributions, and an understanding of the employer’s perspective — so you walk into the conversation prepared, not just armed with a number.
Before any negotiation prep, run the MIT Living Wage Calculator on Waldev for your specific county and household type. This is the foundation everything else in this guide builds on.
Living Wage vs. Market Salary Data — Understanding Both
These two numbers answer different questions, and the most effective negotiators use both.
The living wage answers:
“What does a worker in my location need to earn to cover basic living expenses without assistance?”
It is a cost-of-living floor derived from real local expense data — housing, food, healthcare, transportation, childcare. It tells you whether a salary is economically sufficient for your household, regardless of what the market is paying.
Source: MIT Living Wage Calculator (county-level, household-specific).
Market salary data answers:
“What are employers currently paying for this role, at this experience level, in this location?”
It is a reflection of supply and demand in the labor market for a specific skill set. It tells you what is realistic to ask for — what comparable workers are actually earning. It does not tell you whether that figure is enough to live on.
Sources: Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Levels.fyi (for tech), Payscale.
In an ideal world, these two numbers are aligned — the market salary for your role in your city comfortably exceeds the local living wage. That is the situation where you have the most negotiating room, because both the floor and the market point in your favor.
In practice, they sometimes diverge. In low-wage industries in high-cost cities, market salaries can sit at or even below the living wage. In high-demand fields in lower-cost areas, market salaries can substantially exceed the living wage, giving workers in those roles genuine financial breathing room.
Understanding where your specific situation falls on that spectrum tells you a lot about your negotiating position before you even begin the conversation.
| Scenario | What it means for you | Negotiating position |
|---|---|---|
| Market salary well above living wage | Your field pays well relative to local costs; you have financial margin | Strong — use market data as your primary anchor |
| Market salary roughly at living wage | Typical pay just covers basic needs; little room for savings | Moderate — use both living wage and market data together |
| Market salary below living wage | The industry is structurally underpaying relative to local costs | Difficult — living wage data helps explain the problem; consider all options including role, industry, or location changes |
| Offer above market but below living wage | Employer is paying above average for the role, but it still isn’t enough | Use living wage data to make the case that the role is undervalued in the local market broadly |
Step 1 — Find Your Living Wage Baseline
Everything starts here. Before you research market salaries, before you think about what number to ask for, you need to know the living wage for your specific county and your specific household situation.
Why county-specific? Because the living wage varies significantly — sometimes by ten dollars an hour or more — between locations. Using a statewide average or a national figure gives you a number that may be meaningfully wrong for where you actually live. The county-level figure is what matters.
Access it free through the Waldev MIT Living Wage Calculator. You do not need an account or any personal information. The tool is completely open.
Choose the state you live in, then the specific county. If you are evaluating a job offer in a different city, run the calculator for that county instead — or run it for both and compare.
Choose the configuration that matches your real situation: how many adults, how many are working, how many children. Do not pick a generic “single adult” figure if you have dependents — the living wage for a single parent of two children can be more than double that of a childless single adult in the same county.
The calculator returns an hourly living wage. Multiply it by 2,080 to get the annual pre-tax income equivalent. Write down both figures — you will use them in the next steps.
💡 If you are considering relocating for a job: Run the calculator for both your current county and the new city’s county, using your actual household type for each. The difference in living wage between locations is just as important as the difference in offered salary.
Step 2 — Calculate Your Real Gap
Now that you have your living wage baseline, the next step is understanding where your current or offered compensation actually sits relative to it. This is a simple calculation, but what it reveals is often surprising.
For a current salary
Divide your gross annual salary by 2,080. This gives your effective hourly rate. Subtract your county’s living wage from that number. The result is your hourly margin — how much above or below the living wage you currently sit.
Example: $58,000 ÷ 2,080 = $27.88/hr. Living wage for your county and household = $24.50/hr. Margin = $3.38/hr above living wage.
For a job offer
Convert the offered salary to an hourly rate the same way. Compare against the living wage for the county where you would be living. This tells you immediately whether the offer clears the basic sufficiency bar before you even consider whether to negotiate.
Example: $72,000 offer ÷ 2,080 = $34.62/hr. Living wage in the new city for your household = $31.00/hr. Margin = $3.62/hr. Technically sufficient but tight.
That margin figure — the dollars per hour above the living wage — is what tells you about your real financial breathing room. A $3–$4/hour margin means your basics are covered, but there is almost nothing left for savings, emergencies, or debt repayment. A $10–$12/hour margin means genuinely comfortable financial ground. These are the numbers that tell the real story your gross salary alone cannot.
⚠️ Don’t forget to account for benefits changes: When evaluating an offer against the living wage, factor in differences in employer healthcare contributions, retirement match, and other benefits. A lower salary with generous health coverage may represent more total compensation than a higher salary with no employer health contribution — because the living wage calculation includes healthcare costs that would otherwise come out of your pocket.
Step 3 — Layer in Market Salary Data
The living wage tells you whether a salary is sufficient. Market salary data tells you whether it is competitive. You need both to negotiate effectively.
Gather market salary data for your specific role, experience level, and location from multiple sources. No single salary database is perfectly accurate — each has methodology limitations and sample size issues. Checking two or three sources and looking for the range where they converge gives you a more defensible figure than relying on any one source alone.
Glassdoor and LinkedIn Salary — user-reported salary data, broad coverage across industries, useful for roles with lots of listings. Self-reported data can skew high. Use percentile ranges, not just the median.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook — government-collected wage data by occupation and metro area. Conservative but methodologically rigorous. Good for a credible floor figure in a negotiation.
Levels.fyi — specifically for tech roles; detailed total compensation data including base, bonus, and equity. More granular than general salary databases for engineering, product, and data roles.
Payscale and Salary.com — weighted by experience, education, and skills. Useful for mid-career professionals trying to benchmark against workers with similar credentials in the same market.
Industry associations and unions — many industries publish annual salary surveys. If your field has one, this is often the most accurate source because the sample population is clearly defined and the methodology is transparent.
Once you have gathered data from multiple sources, identify the range where they overlap — the 25th to 75th percentile range for your role, experience level, and location. Your target number in negotiation should typically sit in the upper half of that range, adjusted based on your specific qualifications and the strength of your negotiating position.
Use the living wage calculator to establish the minimum acceptable figure, then use market data to identify the realistic upper bound. Your target sits somewhere between those two points, weighted toward the market data.
Step 4 — Build Your Number
With your living wage baseline and market salary range in hand, you can now construct your target figure — the number you will ask for — and your walk-away floor — the number below which you will decline the offer or leave the role.
Your target number
This is what you ask for. It should sit at or above the midpoint of the market salary range for your role and experience level in your location, and it should comfortably exceed your living wage by enough to allow for savings and financial stability — not just basic need coverage. Ask for this number with confidence. It is grounded in data, not wishful thinking.
Your walk-away floor
This is the minimum you will accept. It should be at or above your living wage — because accepting below that means your income will not cover basic living costs, which is an unsustainable financial position regardless of how much you want the job. Know this number before you enter the room. Having it clear in your head prevents pressure from pushing you below a figure that doesn’t actually work for your life.
The gap between your target and your floor gives you negotiating room. If an employer comes back below your target but above your floor, you have space to accept or continue negotiating. If they come in below your floor, you have a clear signal — and you should be able to respond without hesitation, because you already know why that number does not work.
💡 A practical tip: When you set your target, go a bit higher than your actual preferred number. Employers expect some negotiation and often make a first offer expecting to move. If you ask for exactly what you want, you leave yourself no room to “come down” in a negotiation while still landing at a figure you’re happy with. Building in a 5–10% buffer above your actual preferred salary is standard practice.
Step 5 — Frame the Conversation
Having the data is step one. Knowing how to use it in the actual conversation is where preparation pays off. The way you introduce living wage and market salary data matters as much as the data itself.
The goal is to position yourself as someone who has done serious research and has a clear, evidence-based view of appropriate compensation — not as someone who is complaining that they can’t afford their life on what they’re currently offered. Those two framings lead to very different conversations.
The framing that works
Lead with your value and contributions. Make the case for why you deserve to be paid at the upper end of the market range based on your skills, experience, and track record. Then reference the data — both market salary research and cost-of-living benchmarks — as confirmation that your ask is grounded in reality, not just personal preference.
“Thank you for the offer — I’m genuinely excited about this role. I’ve done some research on market compensation for this position in [city], and based on data from [sources], the range for someone with my experience level typically sits between [X] and [Y]. I’ve also looked at cost-of-living benchmarks for this area, including the MIT Living Wage data, and given my household situation, I’d like to propose a salary of [target figure]. I believe that’s well-supported by both the market data and local economic context. Is there room to move in that direction?”
“I wanted to have a conversation about my compensation. Over the past [time period], I’ve [specific contributions — projects delivered, revenue impacted, responsibilities added]. I’ve also been tracking market rates for my role and experience level in [city], and based on current data, I’m sitting below the midpoint for comparable positions. Given both my contributions and the local cost-of-living context — which has shifted meaningfully in this area over the past two years — I’d like to discuss moving my salary to [target figure]. Can we talk about what that would look like?”
The framing that backfires
Avoid leading with personal financial hardship. Saying “I can’t afford to live here on what you’re offering” may be true, but it puts the employer in the position of evaluating your personal finances rather than your professional value. It also makes the negotiation feel like an appeal for sympathy rather than a discussion of fair compensation for your skills. Keep the conversation professional and externally anchored.
Real Negotiation Scenarios — How This Plays Out
Abstract principles are useful. Seeing how they apply in specific, realistic situations is more useful. Here are four common scenarios where living wage data plays a meaningful role in a negotiation.
Evaluating a first offer in a new city
You are offered $78,000 to relocate from a mid-sized Midwestern city to Seattle for a project management role. On the surface, that is a $12,000 raise over your current $66,000 salary. Looks like a win.
You run the living wage calculator for King County, Washington, for your household type — you and a partner, both working, no children. The living wage per worker comes out to approximately $27/hour, or roughly $56,000 annually. Your offer of $78,000 exceeds that — you’re about $10,500 above the living wage floor per year, which is a reasonable margin.
But your current situation in the Midwest has a living wage of approximately $17/hour for your household type, giving you a margin of about $32,000 annually above the floor. The Seattle offer shrinks that margin by two-thirds, even though the nominal salary went up. You counter at $90,000 — citing both the market salary range for project managers in Seattle ($82,000–$98,000 per your research) and the cost-of-living difference between the two cities. The employer meets you at $86,000. You accept, knowing exactly what the numbers mean.
Asking for a raise after a life change
You have been at your current salary for two years. When you took the role, you were single with no children and comfortably above the living wage for your county. You now have a child, your partner has temporarily left the workforce, and the same salary that worked before no longer covers your household’s actual costs.
You run the living wage calculator for your county using your new household type: one adult working, one child. The figure is substantially higher than it was for a single adult two years ago. You are now below the living wage threshold for your household, not above it.
Combined with two years of strong performance reviews and expanded responsibilities, you have a compelling case. You lead with your contributions and the market data showing your salary is below the midpoint for your experience level. You reference the cost-of-living shift — specifically that the MIT Living Wage Calculator shows the required income for a household like yours in this county is [figure], and that your current compensation has fallen behind both the market and local economic reality. You ask for a 14% raise. You receive 11%. Still a win, and one grounded in data rather than personal appeal.
Comparing two offers in different cities
Two offers land on the same week. Offer A: $95,000 in Austin, Texas. Offer B: $115,000 in Boston, Massachusetts. Which is actually better?
You run the living wage calculator for both counties. For your household type — single adult, no children — the Travis County (Austin) living wage is approximately $19/hour ($39,500/year). The Suffolk County (Boston) living wage is approximately $26/hour ($54,000/year). Your margin above the living wage: Austin at $95k gives you roughly $55,500 in annual margin. Boston at $115k gives you roughly $61,000 in annual margin — but with Massachusetts state income tax applied to a higher bracket, the after-tax difference narrows considerably.
Austin also has no state income tax. After running rough tax estimates, the real take-home difference between the two offers is smaller than the $20,000 headline gap suggests. Austin Offer A may actually leave you with comparable or slightly better real purchasing power — and more margin above the living wage — than the higher-salaried Boston role. This is exactly the kind of insight the living wage calculation surfaces that a raw salary comparison misses.
Negotiating remote pay when the employer is in a different city
You work remotely for a company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Your employer uses the Dallas cost of living to anchor salaries. You live in Denver, Colorado, where the living wage is noticeably higher. Your salary was set when you were living in Dallas, and you subsequently moved to Denver without a compensation adjustment.
You use the living wage calculator to pull both figures — Dallas County and Denver County for your household type. The Denver living wage is approximately $5–$7/hour higher than the Dallas figure. Combined with market salary data showing remote roles at your level paying in the same range you are requesting, you make the case that your compensation should reflect your actual location, not the company’s headquarter city. The employer adjusts by 8%, citing a hybrid location-based pay policy they already have in place that you were not previously aware of — something you might never have discovered without initiating the conversation.
What to Say and What to Avoid
The language you use in a salary negotiation shapes how the employer hears your request. Here is a practical guide to what works and what tends to backfire when bringing living wage and cost-of-living data into the conversation.
- Reference the MIT Living Wage Calculator by name — it is credible, academic, and widely recognised
- Frame cost-of-living data as context that supports your market-rate ask, not as a personal financial disclosure
- Use specific figures: “The living wage for my county is approximately $X/hour” is stronger than “it’s expensive to live here”
- Lead with your value and achievements first, then bring in the external data
- Compare your ask directly to the market range you have researched: “This sits at the midpoint of what comparable roles are paying in this market”
- Know your walk-away floor and be prepared to name it calmly if pushed
- Thank the employer for the offer before negotiating — set a collaborative tone
- Leading with personal financial hardship: “I can’t afford rent on this salary”
- Apologising for asking: “I’m sorry, but I was hoping for a bit more…”
- Giving a range when asked for a number — it anchors low immediately
- Accepting on the spot without any counteroffer attempt — most employers expect negotiation
- Presenting the living wage as a demand rather than context
- Citing only one salary data source — it looks like you only looked for the one that supported your ask
- Making the negotiation feel like an ultimatum unless you are genuinely prepared to walk
Negotiating Remote Work Pay — A Special Case
Remote work has introduced a compensation question that did not exist at scale ten years ago: whose cost of living should set your salary? The company’s city? Your city? Some national figure? Different employers have landed in very different places on this question, and the answer has real financial consequences for remote workers.
Three common employer approaches
Location-agnostic pay
The employer pays the same salary regardless of where the employee lives. More common in smaller companies and some tech firms. Favors remote workers in lower-cost areas and disadvantages those in high-cost metros.
Headquarters-anchored pay
Salaries are set based on the cost of living at company HQ. If you work remotely in a cheaper city, you may earn more than the living wage requires — a windfall. If you live in a more expensive city than HQ, your salary may fall short of what you need.
Location-based pay tiers
The employer adjusts compensation by location tier — typically high, medium, and low cost zones. This is the most equitable approach but also the most complex to administer. Increasingly common at larger tech companies and some professional services firms.
If you work remotely for a company that uses headquarters-anchored pay and you live in a higher-cost city than HQ, the living wage data gives you a concrete, defensible argument. The conversation goes from “I think I deserve more” to “the research-backed living wage for my county is $X, which is $Y above what your current compensation model accounts for — can we discuss a location adjustment?”
For remote workers in lower-cost areas who are paid on a national or HQ scale: you may already be well above your local living wage, which is a financial advantage — but it is worth knowing, because it affects how you think about future role changes, city moves, and financial planning.
Run the living wage calculator for both your county of residence and the employer’s HQ county. The gap between those two figures is the core of your location-adjustment argument.
Handling Counteroffers and Pushback
Even the most well-prepared negotiators face pushback. Employers have their own constraints — budget cycles, internal pay equity, approval processes, and compensation bands that may genuinely limit what they can offer. Knowing how to respond to common pushback keeps the conversation productive rather than letting it collapse.
Common responses and how to handle them
“That’s above our budget for this role.”
Ask whether the salary band can be revisited or whether there is a path to reaching that level within a defined timeframe — a 6-month review with a structured raise target, for example. If the band truly cannot move, shift the conversation to other forms of compensation (see the next section).
“Everyone here is on the same pay scale.”
Acknowledge that you understand internal equity matters, and then redirect: “I understand the importance of pay consistency, and I want to respect that. My research suggests that the current scale may be below market for this role in this location — is that something the company has plans to review?” You are not demanding an exception; you are raising a legitimate systemic question.
“We can revisit this in six months.”
Ask for that promise in writing — not legally binding, but a documented note in your offer letter or an email confirmation. Also ask for specifics: what metrics or milestones trigger the review, and what the expected outcome range is. Vague promises of future reviews often go nowhere without specifics attached.
“Our benefits package makes up the difference.”
Quantify the benefits. Ask for the employer contribution to health insurance premiums, the retirement match percentage, and any other benefits with monetary value. Add those to the base salary and compare the total compensation figure against your living wage and market data benchmarks. Benefits are real compensation — but only if you can measure them.
“We don’t negotiate salary.”
Some employers genuinely have fixed compensation structures, particularly in government, some nonprofits, and companies with rigid pay bands. If the employer confirms this is a hard policy, you have three real options: accept at the offered rate knowing exactly what the gap looks like, decline and look for a role where negotiation is possible, or accept and plan to address the gap through performance reviews or a lateral move within twelve to eighteen months.
When Salary Isn’t the Only Lever
Sometimes the base salary number cannot move — or cannot move enough. That does not mean the negotiation is over. Total compensation includes several elements that can meaningfully close the gap between what an employer can pay and what your household needs.
🏥 Health insurance contributions
The employer’s share of your health insurance premium is real money. If an employer covers 90% of premiums versus 60%, the difference on a family plan can be $4,000–$8,000 per year. That is a significant chunk of the gap between an offered salary and what you need.
🏦 Retirement match
A 6% employer 401(k) match on a $70,000 salary is $4,200 per year in additional compensation that does not show up in your paycheck. If you are comparing two offers, the one with a better match may be worth more in total, even if the base is lower.
🏠 Remote work flexibility
Full remote work lets you live in a lower-cost county while earning a salary set for a higher-cost market. That geographic arbitrage can be worth more than a $10,000–$15,000 salary increase if it allows you to move from a high-cost city to a significantly cheaper area.
⏰ Extra PTO or flexibility
More paid time off or flexible hours can reduce spending on childcare, commuting, and side-service costs that accumulate when rigid work schedules force expensive workarounds. Hard to quantify exactly, but real in practice.
📚 Professional development stipends
Employer-funded training, certifications, or tuition reimbursement reduces out-of-pocket spending on career development and can meaningfully accelerate your earnings trajectory — worth factoring in when comparing total packages.
🚌 Commuter benefits and transit subsidies
Employer transit passes, parking subsidies, or commuter benefit accounts reduce your transportation spending — one of the categories that factors directly into the living wage calculation. A free transit pass in a transit-rich city can offset $150–$250/month in costs.
The practical exercise: take the offered salary, add the estimated dollar value of each meaningful benefit, and compare that total compensation figure against the living wage plus your savings goals. If the total compensation bridges a gap that the base salary alone cannot close, you may have a workable package — as long as you are being honest about the actual value of those benefits rather than inflating them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the living wage as a reason to ask for a raise?
Yes, but it works best as context rather than a direct demand. Saying “I need a raise because the living wage in this county is X” tells your employer about your personal financial situation, which is a weaker negotiating position. The stronger approach is to lead with your value and contributions, then reference cost-of-living data — including the living wage benchmark — as supporting evidence that your current compensation is misaligned with local economic reality. The data grounds your ask in research rather than personal need.
Is it appropriate to bring living wage data to a job interview?
Not in the interview stage itself, but absolutely in the offer negotiation stage. During the interview, your focus should be on demonstrating your value and fit for the role. Once an offer is on the table, you have every right to negotiate — and living wage data, combined with market salary data and your experience level, gives you a well-rounded factual foundation for a counteroffer.
What if the employer says they can’t meet the living wage?
That is important information. It tells you that taking the role means accepting a compensation level that does not cover basic living expenses for your household in your location. At that point the decision becomes personal — can you supplement with a second income, reduce household expenses significantly, or are there non-monetary benefits that materially offset the gap? The critical thing is that you make that decision with clear eyes, knowing exactly what the gap is, rather than discovering the shortfall three months into the role.
How does the living wage differ from market salary data?
Market salary data tells you what employers are currently paying for a role in a given location. The living wage tells you what a worker needs to earn to cover basic living costs in that location. These two figures are related but distinct. In some markets and roles, the typical market salary exceeds the living wage comfortably — meaning the field pays well relative to local costs. In others, market salaries in certain industries fall below the living wage in expensive cities. Using both together gives you the most complete picture of your compensation situation.
Should I tell an employer my specific living wage figure during negotiation?
You can reference it as a benchmark rather than a personal bottom line. Saying “The MIT Living Wage Calculator shows the living wage for a household like mine in this county is approximately X” is factual and professional. It positions the number as objective research rather than a personal financial disclosure. Avoid framing it as “I need this because my bills cost this much” — that shifts the conversation toward sympathy rather than value, which is a weaker negotiating position.
What is the best way to find the living wage for my specific location?
The MIT Living Wage Calculator is the most widely used and methodologically rigorous source for U.S. county-level living wage data. It accounts for household size, number of workers, number of children, and all major cost categories. You can access it free through the Waldev MIT Living Wage Calculator — select your state, then your county, then your household type for a current hourly figure.
Can I use living wage data when negotiating a remote work salary?
Yes, and this has become increasingly relevant as remote work has spread. If your employer uses the company’s headquarters location to set your salary but you live in a higher-cost county, you can reference the living wage for your actual county of residence as part of making the case that local cost-of-living should inform your compensation. This is most effective when combined with market salary data for your role and experience level — a two-pronged argument is stronger than cost-of-living data alone.
Preparation Is the Negotiation
The most effective salary negotiators are not the most aggressive ones — they are the most prepared ones. They walk in knowing their number, knowing the market, knowing the floor below which they will not go, and knowing how to articulate all of it calmly and professionally. That preparation removes the anxiety and replaces it with clarity.
The living wage is one piece of that preparation. It is not the whole conversation — market data, your specific contributions, and the employer’s constraints all matter. But it gives you something most negotiators lack: a research-backed, location-specific, household-specific floor that tells you with confidence whether a salary is actually workable for your life.
Start there. Look up the real number for your county and your household type. Then build your negotiation strategy on top of that foundation.
The MIT Living Wage Calculator on Waldev is free, takes under a minute, and gives you a county-specific figure for your exact household type. It is the first step in building a salary negotiation grounded in real data.
Dr. Amy Glasmeier’s team at MIT provides the county-level living wage research that underpins the figures used throughout this guide.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment Statistics provide government-sourced market salary benchmarks by occupation and metro area.
User-reported salary databases useful for cross-referencing market rates for specific roles and seniority levels across U.S. locations.
EPI’s wage and compensation research provides additional context on the relationship between market wages and cost-of-living benchmarks across U.S. metro areas.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. The salary scenarios and figures used throughout are illustrative examples and do not represent advice for any specific employment situation. Living wage figures vary by county, household type, and year. Market salary data varies by source, methodology, and timing. Before making employment or financial decisions, consult current sources directly and consider seeking advice from a qualified career or financial professional. This article does not constitute financial, legal, or employment advice.