Compare job offers on one adjusted number
Type two or three offers into this job offer comparison calculator to compare job offers on total pay, pay per hour actually worked and one cost-of-living adjusted figure. The math runs in your browser and the table changes as you type.
The verdict line names the winner and the gap in a year. Under 2% apart, it calls a tie on money instead.
Only got the salary so far? Fill in Pay and leave the rest. "More details" folds away benefits, hours, the commute and the cost of living until you know them.
The example offers, run for real
November 6, 2026: I pressed Try an example on my own copy of the site. Here is what it loaded.
- Offer A: $85,000 base, $5,000 sign-on, 10% target bonus, 4% match, $7,200 health, 15 PTO days, 35 minutes each way at $12 a day.
- Offer B: $92,000 base, 5% bonus, $8,000 equity a year, 3% match, $5,000 health, 20 PTO days, 45 hours a week, 10 minutes each way at $4 a day, cost-of-living index 115.
And here is the table it drew, A first:
- Total annual comp: $109,100 and $112,360.
- Hours a year incl. commute: 2,246 and 2,240.
- Per hour actually worked: $47.27 and $49.73.
- Cost-of-living adjusted: $106,160 and $96,870.
The verdict: "Offer A comes out ahead: worth $9,290 a year more than Offer B."
On the total package B wins, and per hour too. It still loses, because every dollar of it is divided by 1.15.
The hours row surprised me. A's 40-hour week ends up level with B's 45-hour week. 286 of A's hours a year are spent in a car or on a train.
Then I moved the index
Same offers, only B's cost-of-living index changed.
- 100: B ahead by $5,240.
- 104 to 107: a tie each time. At 107 the verdict read "within 2.0%", yet still called it a tie, since the real gap was 1.97%.
- 108: A ahead by $3,012.
So the whole decision hangs on whether B's city costs about 5% more or 15% more. That cost of living comparison deserves more of your time than any other box. Our guide on a job offer in a new city shows one way to find it.
Then the ratings
I renamed the offers Office job and City job, set Office job's remote score to 2, and gave City job a 4 for remote and a 5 for growth. Averages: 2.7 and 4.0.
- Slider at 10%: Office job ahead by $2,678.
- Slider at 30%: City job ahead by $10,548.
- Slider at 0%: back to Office job by $9,290, money only.
The slider runs from 0% to 30% and starts at 10%. An average of 3 changes nothing. At 10%, a perfect 5 adds 10% and a flat 1 takes 10% off.
Where should you set it? I leave it at 10% unless one job clearly wins on something I care about. Then I check whether the verdict flips at 30%, because that tells me how big the money gap really is.
What goes in each box
- Base salary: the yearly figure before tax.
- Sign-on bonus: added once, in full, to the yearly total. Next year it is gone, so a win built on it is a year-one win.
- Target bonus: a percent of base. Ask what the company actually paid out last year.
- Equity per year: the grant divided by the years it vests over.
- Retirement match: a percent of base that the employer adds.
- Employer health cover: what the employer pays toward your premium in a year.
- Paid time off: days a year.
- Hours per week: 40 unless you change it.
- One-way commute in minutes, and what the commute costs a day.
- Cost-of-living index: 100 for the place you compare against. A city 8% dearer is 108.
Then three 1 to 5 scores per offer: remote and flexibility, growth and learning, team and culture. A third offer? Press Add a third offer.
How each row is worked out
I read these off the page's script so you can check my numbers by hand.
- Total annual comp adds base, sign-on, bonus, equity, match and health.
- PTO value is base divided by 260, times your days off. It gets its own row and stays out of the total.
- Weeks worked is 52 minus your PTO days divided by 5. Offer A's 15 days leave 49 weeks, so 245 commuting days.
- Commute cost per year is the daily cost times those days: $12 times 245 is $2,940.
- Hours a year is weekly hours times weeks worked, plus both legs of the commute on each workday.
- Per hour actually worked is total comp minus commute cost, over those hours.
- Cost-of-living adjusted is total comp minus commute cost, divided by the index over 100.
- Adjusted value starts from that figure and moves it with your ratings and the slider.
Tax is left out. Every row is before tax.
Market and currency menus
The market menu only renames the match row: 401(k) match, Pension contribution, RRSP match or Superannuation. The currency menu only swaps the symbol to $, £, C$ or A$.
Nothing is converted. Put every offer in one currency, or the comparison means nothing.
For a fair benefits comparison, these are the questions I would ask first:
- US: when does the 401(k) match vest, and which health plan tier is the $ figure for?
- UK: is the employer pension a percent of full salary, and are bank holidays inside the holiday days quoted?
- Canada: does the employer match RRSP money, and what does the benefits plan add to the provincial one?
- Australia: was the figure quoted with super on top or with super inside it? For a superannuation comparison, enter the super rate as the match only when it sits on top.
Should I take the job? What the table leaves out
The tool prices what you type. It knows nothing about the manager, how stable the company is, or whether people there get promoted. Those go in the ratings, at whatever weight you trust.
Equity is the soft spot. The $8,000 a year in Offer B arrives only if you stay to vest and the shares hold their value.
When the verdict says tie, it means it. Comparing job offers that close, pick on the ratings, or ask for more. The counter offer email generator drafts that email, and the pay raise calculator shows what a bump in base adds.
More on weighing up two offers is in our guides How to Compare Two Job Offers and total compensation beyond salary, and on the salary and offers hub.
Sharing it, and what that sends
Nothing you type is sent to us. The page writes your numbers into its own address as you go.
Copy shareable link copies that address, so the person you send it to sees your exact job offer comparison. Copy as text gives a plain summary for an email.
Anything in an address ends up where addresses go: your browser history, and our server when someone opens the link.
Our own page counter keeps the path and drops the numbers. Analytics and ad scripts that load with the page can read the address too. Rather keep them out of any address bar? Use Copy as text.
GetJobTools built this total compensation calculator; the about page has the story. Spot a number that looks wrong? Tell us on the contact page with your link.
FAQ
Which job pays more once benefits count?
Enter both offers and read Total annual comp, then Cost-of-living adjusted. In the built-in example the offer with the lower total won by $9,290 a year once the second city's 15% higher costs were counted.
Does the calculator count PTO in the total?
No. PTO value gets its own row: base divided by 260 workdays, times your days off. Your PTO does cut the weeks you work, which lowers the yearly commute cost and changes the hourly figure.
What should I enter for unlimited PTO?
The days you expect to take. People who work there now can tell you what is normal, and unlimited PTO may pay nothing out when you leave.
Does the market menu change the math?
No. The market menu renames the match row and the currency menu changes the symbol. Nothing gets converted, so enter every offer in the same currency.
Does this take tax into account?
No, every figure is before tax. A move to another state, province or country changes take-home pay, so run each total through a local tax calculator as well.
How do I put a yearly value on RSUs?
Divide the grant by the years it vests over and enter that in Equity per year: a $200,000 grant over four years is $50,000. You only get it if you stay and the stock holds its price.