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To compare two job offers fairly, add up everything each employer gives you per year (base, guaranteed bonus, retirement match, and benefits) and subtract what each job costs you per year (your share of health premiums, commuting, and other recurring costs). Compare the net figures, not just the base salaries.
Base salary is only the headline
The offer with the bigger base is not automatically the better deal. A slightly lower salary with a strong retirement match, cheaper health coverage, and a shorter commute can easily come out ahead once everything is counted.
Net = (Base + Bonus + Retirement + Benefits) − (Health premium + Commute + Other costs)
What to add up on each side
Compensation (money in)
- Base salary — the guaranteed annual figure.
- Guaranteed bonus — count only what is contractually guaranteed; treat discretionary bonuses conservatively or leave them out.
- Employer retirement contribution — a match is real compensation, even though it is not spendable today.
- Other recurring benefits — stipends, allowances, or perks with a clear cash value.
Costs (money out)
- Your health premium — the part you pay, not the employer’s share.
- Commute — fuel, transit, parking, or the cost of extra time.
- Other recurring costs — relocation-related expenses, required equipment, and similar.
A worked example
Two offers, entered as annual figures:
- Offer A: $90,000 base + $5,000 bonus + $4,500 match − $2,400 premium − $3,000 commute = $94,100 net
- Offer B: $95,000 base + $2,850 match + $500 benefits − $1,200 premium − $6,000 commute = $91,150 net
Offer B has the higher salary, but Offer A is ahead by about $2,950 a year once everything is counted — roughly $246 a month before tax.
Compare two offers side by side →
What the numbers cannot tell you
A net-compensation comparison is a starting point, not the whole decision. It cannot weigh growth potential, job security, the quality of the team, learning opportunities, flexibility, or how the role fits your life. Use the arithmetic to remove the guesswork about money, then judge the rest deliberately.
Note too that this kind of comparison is before tax. Tax outcomes depend on filing details and location, so comparing gross figures keeps both offers on equal footing.
Score the things the numbers cannot measure
Give the non-financial factors the same structure as the money. List what matters most to you — growth potential, job security, the quality of the team, learning opportunities, flexibility, and how the role fits your life — and give each factor a weight based on how much it matters to you. Then score each offer from 1 to 5 on every factor, multiply each score by its weight, and add the weighted scores up for each offer.
Use the two totals together: the net-compensation figure tells you which offer pays more once costs are counted, and the weighted score tells you which offer fits your priorities better. When they point to different offers, the size of the money gap tells you what the better fit would cost you each year — and you can decide whether it is worth it.
Compare against next year’s pay, not today’s
When you compare an outside offer with staying put, do not compare it with what you earn today — compare it with what you are likely to earn next year if you stay. Employers budgeted an average 3.5% total increase for 2026 (Mercer QuickPulse U.S. Compensation Planning Survey, October 2025; merit average 3.2%). The average promotion increase is 8.7%, and only about 9% of employees are expected to be promoted in 2026. Meanwhile, BLS Employment Cost Index wage growth is 3.1% while CPI inflation is 3.7%. See our Average Raise Percentage page for the full 2026 figures.
Worked example: if you earn $90,000 and expect a typical 3.5% raise by staying, your stay-put pay next year is $90,000 × 1.035 = $93,150 — so compare any outside offer’s net compensation against $93,150, not against today’s $90,000.
Before you compare two offers line by line, sanity-check the headline number itself: our guide to how much of a raise you should get when switching jobs shows what switchers actually got in 2026 — a median of about 5% — and how to set your target from the market rate.
Common questions
Not automatically. Compare total compensation minus total costs. A lower base can win once benefits and commuting are included.
Yes — a match is genuine compensation. Keep in mind it is not spendable today, so weigh it alongside cash if near-term income matters to you.
Fold the cost differences you can quantify — commuting, and any recurring costs — into the comparison, and consider broader cost-of-living differences separately when you weigh the non-financial factors.
Count the commute you would no longer pay — fuel, transit, parking, or the cost of extra time — as money the on-site offer costs you each year, and subtract it in the same net-compensation comparison. Then weigh flexibility and how each role fits your life with the non-financial factors.
Yes. Enter each offer’s base, guaranteed bonus, retirement match, benefits, health premium, and commute into the Job Offer Comparison Calculator to see both net figures side by side, instead of doing the arithmetic by hand.
Related decisions, once you have compared the offers:
Raise vs bonus — which is worth more over time?
How much of a raise to ask for
Future Salary Calculator — project your pay ahead
Sources & methodology
The math in this guide matches the formulas documented on our How We Calculate page, where the calculators are also tested. This guide is educational and is not payroll, tax, legal or financial advice.
Sources for the 2026 context: Mercer QuickPulse U.S. Compensation Planning Survey (October 2025) — 2026 salary budgets and promotion figures, as also cited on our Average Raise Percentage page, together with BLS Employment Cost Index wage growth of 3.1% and CPI inflation of 3.7%. Updated October 2026.
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