Compare Two Job Offers On Total Comp, Not Base Salary
Base salary is the easiest number to compare and the least complete. This takes both offers — base, bonus, equity grant, benefits, and the hours each actually expects — annualises the equity over its vesting period, subtracts your tax rate, and divides by real weekly hours so you can see what each job pays per hour. Local only; your offers never leave the tab.
- Ledger
- Both offers lined up row by row, annualised and after tax
- local
- What it replaces
- Comparing two base salaries and guessing
- $0.00
- Input
- Base, bonus, equity, benefits, and hours for each
- no card
- Output
- Total comp, hourly rate, and the gap
- recomputed
What you pay otherwise
| Route | What you get | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter's opinion | Incentivised by whichever offer closes | conflicted |
| Financial adviser consult | An hour to do arithmetic | $150+ |
| Comparing base only | Missing equity, benefits and hours entirely | years of pay |
| This page | The whole picture on one ledger | $0 |
The workflow
Enter the equity grant as the total, not the annual figure
A 40,000 grant vesting over four years is 10,000 a year, not 40,000. The tool divides it out — which is exactly why an offer with a headline grant can lose to a smaller one that vests faster.
Put a real number on benefits, even a rough one
Employer pension contributions, health premiums, and paid parental leave all have a cash value. Estimate them rather than leaving them blank; an offer that looks 5% worse on salary can win outright once a generous pension match is counted.
Be honest about the hours
This is where the comparison usually flips. A 60,000 offer at 50 hours a week pays less per hour than a 52,000 offer at 38. If you don't know the real hours, ask someone who works there before you accept.
Use the gap as a negotiation figure, not a verdict
The ledger prints the difference in money. That number is the opening line of a counter-offer — 'to match what I'm weighing, I'd need X more' is a far stronger position than 'I'd like more'.
Worked example
Sample: Offer A 78,000 vs Offer B 71,000 A: cash 85,800 + equity 9,000/yr + benefits 6,500 = 101,300 B: cash 74,550 + equity 15,000/yr + benefits 11,000 = 100,550 A at 46 h/wk = 42.35/hr B at 37.5 h/wk = 51.56/hr Winner on the hour: B, by 9.21/hr Uploaded nothing — computed in the tab
Numbers above are sample data produced by the tool's own pre-loaded example, run in the browser — not averages or measured benchmarks.
What breaks this
Entering the equity grant as an annual figure double-counts it and inflates that offer. Leaving benefits blank silently favours the higher-salary job. Estimating hours optimistically hides the single variable most likely to flip the result — if you don't know, ask before you accept.
Try it now
Two offers are loaded where the lower base wins on the hour. Raise Offer B's hours to 45 and watch the winner change.
Open the comparator →Go deeper: the printable ledger
The comparison is free forever. The $4 one-time tier adds:
- Printable ledger — both offers on one sheet for a partner or adviser — estimate: ~15 min saved reformatting.
- Saved offers shelf — keep up to 8 comparisons in this browser — estimate: ~12 min saved across a search.
- Counter-offer note — the gap written up as a negotiation line — estimate: ~20 min saved drafting.