Job Offer Comparison Calculator, Compare Total Compensation
Two job offers on the table, and the base salaries are telling you a lie. A $95,000 offer with a thin benefits package can be worth less than an $88,000 offer with a strong one, because total compensation, not base salary, is the number that shapes your life. This job offer comparison calculator puts both offers on the same scoreboard: base salary, annual bonus, the employer's 401(k) or pension match, the dollar value of your paid time off, the employer's health insurance contribution, and any remote work stipend. Every line converts to annual dollars, including PTO days priced at your daily rate, salary divided by 260 working days, and the retirement match priced as a percentage of salary. The tool declares a side by side winner with the exact annual margin and translates each offer into an hourly equivalent you can weigh against a contracting rate or your current role. The maths is region neutral: enter a 401(k), UK pension, Canadian RRSP or Australian superannuation match, and it works the same in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. Use the result as your negotiation script, candidates who quote the full compensation gap negotiate with arithmetic, not feelings.
Last updated: October 22, 2026
Your result
Pre tax comparison of total compensation. Equity, vesting schedules and income tax are not included, the guide below explains how to price them.
The formula
Total compensation = base salary + annual bonus + employer match value + PTO value + health benefit value + remote stipendEmployer match value = base salary × match percentagePTO value = (base salary ÷ 260 working days) × PTO daysHourly equivalent = total compensation ÷ 2,080 hours
A worked example
Offer A: $95,000 salary + $8,000 bonus + 4% match ($3,800) + 15 PTO days ($5,480.77) + $6,000 health + $1,200 stipend = $119,480.77 total, or $57.44 an hour. Offer B: $88,000 salary + $10,000 bonus + 6% match ($5,280) + 25 PTO days ($8,461.54) + $7,500 health = $119,241.54 total, or $57.32 an hour. Offer A wins by just $239.23 a year, the $7,000 salary headline was a mirage; the benefits nearly closed the entire gap.
More about the Job Offer Comparison Calculator
Base salary is not the score
The offer letter leads with the biggest number because that is what gets signed. But base salary is only the opening bid, bonuses, retirement matches, paid time off, health contributions and stipends are the rest of the hand, and they routinely swing the result by 15 to 25 percent.
A $95,000 salary with a 3% match, 10 PTO days and a bare bones health plan can easily lose to an $88,000 salary with a 6% match, 25 PTO days and a fully funded plan. The calculator prices every line so the headline number stops doing the talking.
Rule of thumb: if you are only comparing salaries, you are ignoring roughly a quarter of what each employer is actually paying you.
How PTO days become dollars
Every paid day off is a day you are paid your full salary without working. Priced at salary ÷ 260 working days, a single PTO day is worth about 0.38% of your salary, at $100,000, that is roughly $385 a day.
Five extra PTO days are therefore worth around $1,925 a year, and unlimited PTO policies only count if you actually take the days. Ask how many people took last year before you price it in.
Enter the days each offer guarantees, not the policy maximum you might never use.
The retirement match trap
A 401(k) or pension match is free money with a vesting schedule attached. A 6% match on $90,000 is $5,400 a year your employer adds, but only if you contribute enough to earn it, and only if you stay long enough for it to vest.
Matches usually vest immediately or over 2 to 6 years. An unvested match is a promise, not money: leaving after one year of a three year cliff can forfeit the entire match.
Enter the match as a percentage of your salary, and discount it mentally if the vesting schedule is long and you are not sure you will stay.
Health benefits: the hidden salary
Employer health contributions are the easiest line to ignore and one of the largest. The average employer pays well over $10,000 a year toward a family plan in the US, and the difference between a generous plan and a stingy one can exceed $5,000 annually.
Compare premiums, deductibles and HSA or FSA contributions, not just the plan name. Ask each employer for the Summary of Benefits before you decide.
If one offer covers your partner or children cheaply and the other does not, price that difference in, family coverage is where the gap gets expensive fast.
When the lower offer wins
It wins when the benefits outrun the salary gap: a bigger match, more PTO, cheaper health coverage and a remote stipend stack up fast. The calculator makes this visible by converting every line to annual dollars and declaring a winner with the exact margin.
Use the result as negotiation leverage. “Your total package is $6,000 below the other offer” is a stronger argument than “I want a higher salary”. It gives the employer room to close the gap with a signing bonus, extra PTO or a better match.
Still torn after the maths? The salary vs hourly calculator reframes each offer as an hourly rate, the contractor vs employee calculator tells you whether the offer should even be a W-2 in the first place, and the meeting cost calculator shows what your time is actually worth once you start working there.
A worked comparison where the smaller salary wins
Suppose Offer A pays $92,000 with an 8 percent bonus worth $7,360, a 4 percent retirement match worth $3,680, 20 paid days off worth $7,076.92 at $92,000 divided by 260 working days, and a $6,500 health contribution. The pieces add up to about $116,616.92 a year. Offer B pays $98,000 with no bonus, a 3 percent match worth $2,940, 15 days off worth $5,653.85, and $4,000 toward health, totalling about $110,593.85, so the lower salary wins by roughly $6,023.
Notice what decided that result. The $6,000 salary gap was real, but the bonus alone more than erased it, and the extra five days off plus the stronger health contribution widened the lead further. Run your own offers line by line in the same way before you negotiate, because the line you can move, a signing adjustment, two extra days, a match top up, is rarely the headline salary itself.
Comparison mistakes that quietly cost thousands
The most expensive mistake is valuing a bonus at its target figure without asking how often the target is actually met. A bonus described as up to 15 percent that historically pays half its target is a 7.5 percent bonus wearing a costume. Ask what the team received last year, whether the scheme is funded by company results or personal ratings, and whether a new joiner in your start month qualifies for the full first year payment or only a pro rated share.
The second mistake is comparing offers at different moments in their benefit calendars. Health cover that starts on day one is worth more than an identical plan that starts after a waiting period, and a retirement match that begins only after a year of service quietly deletes a year of contributions. Enter what each offer is worth in your first twelve months, not what it promises to be worth once every waiting period has expired.
Guaranteed money versus conditional money: how to weigh each line
Not every dollar in a total deserves equal trust. Base salary, a contractual match you will actually earn, and an employer health contribution are close to certain. A performance bonus is probable money. Equity, profit sharing, and an unlimited holiday policy are speculative money, because their value depends on company performance, vesting, or team habits. A sensible comparison counts the certain lines in full, discounts the probable ones, and treats the speculative ones as a tiebreaker rather than a foundation.
That ordering also tells you which offer suits which situation. If your monthly commitments leave no slack, the offer with the higher guaranteed share protects you even when its total is slightly smaller. If you have a financial cushion and a long horizon, an offer weighted toward bonuses and equity can be the better bet. The calculator gives you the totals; this certainty check tells you how much of each total you should actually believe.
How to use the Job Offer Comparison Calculator
- Enter each offer's base salary and annual bonus.
- Add the 401(k) or pension match percentage, PTO days, health benefit value, and any remote stipend for both offers.
- Click Compare offers to see the side by side totals.
- Read the winner and the margin, check each hourly equivalent, then use the real gap in your negotiation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compare two job offers fairly?
Convert everything to annual dollars first: base salary, guaranteed bonus, the employer retirement match (salary × match %), PTO days valued at salary ÷ 260 per day, the employer's health plan contribution, and remote or commuter stipends. Compare the two totals, not the two salaries. The calculator does this arithmetic for you and names the winner with the exact margin.
What counts as total compensation?
Base salary plus annual bonus, the employer retirement or pension match, the dollar value of paid time off, the employer's share of health insurance premiums, and extras like remote stipends, commuter passes or education budgets. Equity needs its own valuation, and taxes are handled separately. This is a pre tax comparison of what each employer is putting on the table.
How is PTO valued in the calculator?
Each PTO day is worth your daily rate: annual salary divided by 260 working days. Fifteen days at a $95,000 salary is about $5,481 a year, real money, because paid days off are days you keep your full pay without working. That is why an offer with five extra PTO days can silently add thousands to its total.
Can a lower salary offer actually be the better deal?
Yes, it happens constantly. A $7,000 lower salary is erased by a 6% instead of 3% retirement match, five more PTO days, and a richer health plan. The salary headline is just one of six inputs; the winner is decided by the sum. If the calculator flips your first impression, trust the arithmetic and negotiate from the real numbers.
Should I compare offers before or after taxes?
Compare before taxes first, tax rates depend on your bracket, state and filing status, and both offers face the same tax system. Once you have the pre tax winner, run each offer's salary through a take home pay calculator for your location. The gross tells you which employer offers more; the net tells you what reaches your bank account.
Does this calculator work outside the USA?
Yes, the maths is region neutral. Enter your 401(k), UK pension, Canadian RRSP or Australian superannuation match as a percentage of salary, and the PTO and stipend fields work the same everywhere. Money displays in your region's currency. Only the input labels are American; the arithmetic behind them is universal.
How should I value a signing bonus that is only paid once?
Count it in your first year comparison, but keep it out of the ongoing annual total, because it never repeats. A $5,000 signing bonus makes year one look $5,000 better while year two quietly drops back. The cleanest approach is to compare the recurring packages first, then treat the signing bonus as compensation for switching costs such as a lost bonus, a moved start date, or a benefits gap.
What if one offer is hourly and the other is salaried?
Convert the hourly offer to an annual figure using the hours you will genuinely be paid for, including any reliably offered overtime, then compare it against the salary plus the same benefit lines. Remember that hourly roles often pay only for hours worked, so unpaid holidays come out of your pocket. Pricing the paid days off in the calculator shows exactly how much that difference is worth each year.
How do I compare bonuses with different targets and guarantees?
Enter the amount you realistically expect, not the headline target. If part of the bonus is guaranteed in writing, count that part in full. For the performance based remainder, ask what the team actually received in recent years and use a figure below target if payouts have been inconsistent. Two offers both advertising 10 percent can be thousands apart once real payout history replaces the brochure number.
How should I treat stock options or equity in the comparison?
Treat equity as uncertain until it vests and can actually be sold. Read the vesting schedule, the cliff before anything vests at all, and what happens to unvested shares if you leave. Because private company shares may never become cash, most people count them at a heavy discount or leave them out of the main total and use them only to break a near tie between otherwise similar offers.