Base Salary Is a Teaser, Not the Price
When two offers land on the table, almost everyone compares the base salaries and stops there. That is like comparing two houses by their listing photos. Base salary is typically only 75 to 85 percent of what a job actually pays you — the rest hides in the bonus, the retirement match, paid time off, health coverage, and equity. A $120,000 offer with a 15 percent bonus, a 5 percent 401(k) match, and 25 PTO days is worth roughly $149,000 a year. A $135,000 offer with no bonus, a 3 percent match, and 10 PTO days is worth about $143,000. The "lower" offer wins by six grand a year, and most candidates never do the math.
The fix is to convert every offer into a single number: total annual compensation. Add the expected cash bonus, the employer retirement contribution, and the dollar value of PTO, and you can compare offers apples to apples. This page does exactly that, live, for two offers side by side — and then goes one step further by dividing by actual working hours to get your true hourly rate.
Bonuses: Expected, Not Advertised
Bonus plans are written in pencil. A "15% target bonus" means 15% if the company hits its goals and you hit yours — actual payouts routinely land between 50 and 120 percent of target. Before you enter a number in the calculator, ask the recruiter two questions: what did this role's bonus actually pay out last year, and what percentage of employees received the full target? Use last year's real payout as your input, not the target on the offer letter.
Also check the bonus mechanics. Is it paid quarterly or annually? Is there a guaranteed first-year minimum (common for senior hires)? Does it require you to be employed on the payout date — meaning quitting in February forfeits last year's bonus? A bonus you will never collect is worth zero, no matter how big the target looks.
The 401(k) Match Is a Raise You Can't See
An employer match is free money with your name on it, and differences compound brutally. A 5 percent match on a $120,000 salary is $6,000 a year of extra compensation; a 3 percent match on $135,000 is $4,050. That $1,950 annual gap, invested over a 30-year career at 7 percent returns, becomes roughly $185,000. Yet candidates routinely ignore the match because it does not show up in the paycheck.
Read the vesting schedule before you count it. Many companies use graded vesting — you own 20 percent of the match after one year, 40 after two, and so on — or cliff vesting where you own nothing until year three. If you plan to stay two years at a company with three-year cliff vesting, the match is worth exactly zero to you. The calculator counts the full match; mentally discount it if you will leave before it vests.
PTO Has a Dollar Value — Price It
Paid time off is deferred salary. Each PTO day is worth your daily rate: salary divided by 260 working days. At $120,000, one PTO day is worth $462; the difference between 10 and 25 PTO days is nearly $7,000 a year. That is real money, even though it never appears on a pay stub — it is time you are paid for but do not have to work.
Two subtleties matter. First, unlimited PTO is usually worth less than a fixed number, because people with unlimited plans take fewer days on average — around 10 to 12, versus 15-plus at companies with defined banks. Enter 12 days for an "unlimited" policy unless the team can show you real averages. Second, check whether unused PTO pays out when you leave; in some states it must, in others it vanishes, which changes its value as an asset.
The True Hourly Rate Settles Arguments
Total compensation answers "which offer pays more." The true hourly rate answers "which job pays more for my actual life." Divide total comp by real working hours — 2,080 minus PTO days times eight — and the picture sharpens. An offer with more PTO does not just add PTO value; it shrinks the denominator, lifting your effective hourly pay twice.
This is also where expected hours belong. A $150,000 offer that demands 60-hour weeks pays a lower true hourly rate than a $120,000 offer at 40 hours. The calculator assumes a standard 40-hour week for both; if one role is known for long hours, adjust mentally — or better, ask the team what last month's hours actually looked like before you sign.
Don't Forget the Rest of the Package
Four more items can swing a decision. Health insurance: compare premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums, not just "we have great benefits" — a $200-a-month premium difference is $2,400 a year. Equity: for startups, value stock options at zero unless you understand the strike price, vesting, and last valuation; for public companies, count RSUs at current price with the vesting schedule. Remote work: skipping a commute saves real money — the IRS values driving at about 70 cents a mile, so a 30-mile round trip is $21 a day, over $5,000 a year, before counting your time. Growth: the job that pays $10,000 less but promotes you in 18 months usually wins within three years.
Taxes and Cost of Living: The Quiet Killers
A $20,000 raise that requires moving from a no-income-tax state to one with a 10 percent income tax is barely a raise at all. Run both offers through a paycheck calculator with the correct state withholding before comparing, and price the actual housing markets — not the metro averages, the neighborhoods you would really live in. Remote offers add a twist: some companies adjust pay by location, so confirm whether the number quoted is national or geo-adjusted.
Making the Final Call
Do the math first, then let judgment in. Compute both true numbers, note the gap, and then ask: is the non-monetary difference — the manager, the work, the commute, the trajectory — worth the gap? If Offer A wins by $8,000 a year but Offer B has the team you would run through walls for, take Offer B with open eyes. The point of the calculator is not to make the decision for you; it is to make sure you are not making a $150,000 decision on a $30,000 misunderstanding. Negotiate, too — the best use of a second offer is as polite leverage: "I prefer your team; can you close the gap on the match?" Competing offers, handled gracefully, routinely add 5 to 10 percent.
Negotiating With the True Number
The calculator's real power shows up in negotiation. Instead of "I was hoping for more," you can say: "Your offer's total compensation is $141,000 against my other offer's $149,000 — the gap is mostly the 401(k) match and bonus target. Can we move the match from 3 to 5 percent?" Specificity signals that you have done the work, and it gives the hiring manager something concrete to take upstairs — managers can rarely invent salary out of thin air, but they can often move a match, a sign-on bonus, or PTO days. Ask for the gap-closer, not a round number: "close the $8,000 gap" beats "give me $150k" because it frames the negotiation as problem-solving. And negotiate everything in the same conversation — salary, bonus, match, start date, remote days — since concessions trade against each other. Get the final numbers in the written offer letter, not just email; verbal promises have a way of evaporating between the handshake and the first paycheck.