Base salary alone can hide meaningful differences in pension contributions, health costs, paid leave, bonuses, commute time and relocation. A comparison should show money and time separately before combining them.
Separate guaranteed and uncertain pay
List salary and contractual allowances apart from discretionary bonuses, commission and equity. Apply a conservative probability to uncertain amounts or show them as a separate upside case.
Add benefits and employee costs
Include employer retirement contributions and benefits you would otherwise purchase. Subtract employee premiums, required travel, parking and other job-specific costs.
Keep time visible
Calculate annual work and commute hours, including unpaid travel. An effective hourly figure can clarify a tradeoff, but do not imply that every personal hour has the same cash value.
Worked example
Scroll the table horizontally on small screens to see every column.
| Salary | Employer benefits | Job-specific costs | Net employment value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70,000 | 9,000 | 4,000 | 75,000 |
Uncertain bonus and the personal value of commute time are omitted here and should be shown as separate scenarios.
Sources and checks
Examples are illustrative and can be checked with the linked tools. Read each tool’s assumptions before applying its result. How we verify methods.