What is your job offer really worth?
Your offer letter has seven numbers in it. Most people only read one.
This free total compensation calculator turns base salary, bonus target, employer 401(k) match, health and HSA contributions, equity, paid time off and local rent into one annual figure and one monthly take-home figure. Base salary is usually only 70% to 90% of what an offer is worth, which is why two offers that look a few thousand apart often aren't. Enter one offer to see what it is really worth, or run it twice to compare two.
Calculations are estimates. WeLeap does not store offer data until you create an account.
The 7 numbers in your offer
How we value an offer
It starts from take-home, not base salary
We estimate federal income tax, your state’s income tax and FICA, then show what actually lands each month. For most salaries between $60,000 and $150,000 that is somewhere between roughly 65% and 78% of gross, and the state you work in moves it more than almost anything else in the offer.
Then it prices the six things that aren’t salary
Bonus target, employer 401(k) match, health and HSA contributions, equity, and paid time off. A dollar-for-dollar match up to 5% of an $80,000 salary is $4,000 a year you only receive if you contribute — that is a bigger swing than most negotiated salary increases.
It puts housing next to the offer
A market rent estimate for the city goes beside your take-home, because the same salary buys very different lives in different places. Comparing two offers on base salary alone is comparing the one number that varies least.
And it shows the total against the number in the letter
Base salary is typically 70% to 90% of what an offer is worth. The gap between the two figures is what you would be giving up by taking the higher base — or what you would be gaining by taking the lower one.
How do you read the result?
Three figures come out, and they answer different questions. Mixing them up is the most common way an offer gets misjudged in either direction.
- Total package
- Everything the employer gives you in a year, before tax: base, bonus at target, the match you would capture, employer HSA money and equity vesting, less what you pay for health cover. This is the number to quote in a negotiation and the number to compare against another offer — but it is not money you can spend, because most of it is either taxed, locked in a retirement account or dependent on a share price.
- Monthly take-home
- Base salary after estimated federal tax, state tax and FICA, divided by twelve. This is the number to plan a life against — rent, bills, everything. If rent is more than about 30% of it the calculator flags it, and over 35% it hands you the rent tool rather than just warning you.
- Monthly wealth building
- What the offer leaves you to build with each month: the savings share of your take-home, plus employer contributions, plus after-tax bonus and equity. It moves when you drag the needs and wants sliders, which is the point — the offer sets the ceiling, and how you live sets where inside it you land.
What counts as a good job offer?
“Good” is three questions wearing one coat. Is the offer competitive for that role, level and location? Is the package worth more or less than the headline suggests? And does what it leaves you each month support the life you want where the job actually is?
This calculator answers the second and third precisely. It does not answer the first, and it is worth being blunt about that: nothing here holds salary benchmark data, so it cannot tell you whether $115,000 is the market rate for your role in your city. For that you need a site that collects reported salaries by company and level. Bring that number here afterwards — knowing the market rate tells you whether to push on base, and this tells you whether pushing on base is even where the money is.
On the parts it can see, three things separate a strong package from a large base salary. A 401(k) match is the only line in an offer that is an immediate, guaranteed return on your own money — and it is forfeited quietly if you never raise your contribution rate. Equity is compensation but not income: RSUs in a listed company have a price and a vesting schedule, options in a private company have a scenario. And the state and the city do more to your monthly number than most negotiable amounts do, which is why the same offer is genuinely worth different amounts in different places.
There is no threshold at which an offer becomes objectively good. What you can do is stop comparing the one number in an offer that varies least, and start comparing what is left at the end of the month.
How do you compare two job offers?
The calculator takes one offer at a time. Run it twice — once per offer, with each one's own state and city — and write down four numbers each time.
- 1
Total package, not base salary
Enter both offers in full, including the bonus target, the match terms and the annual vesting value of any equity. Offers quoted a few thousand apart routinely land closer together once the match and bonus are priced, and they routinely swap places.
- 2
Monthly take-home in each offer’s own state
Set the work state for each. Nine states levy no income tax on wages and the highest-tax states sit at the other end of the range, so two identical salaries do not produce identical paycheques.
- 3
What is left after rent in each city
Take monthly take-home and subtract a realistic rent for where you would actually live. This is the figure that decides how the two offers feel to live on, and it is the one a base-salary comparison never shows.
- 4
Then weigh what has no dollar value
Vesting cliffs, whether the private-company equity is worth anything, how much of the PTO you would really take, the commute, and how much you want the job. The calculator deliberately leaves equity as its own line rather than folding it into the total, so the comparison stays honest when one offer is mostly paper.
What this can’t see: your existing savings, what you already contribute, and whether the equity is worth anything. Public-company RSUs have a price; private-company options have a scenario. We show equity as its own line rather than folding it into a total, so it never quietly inflates the number you plan your rent against.
Questions people actually ask
How do I know if a job offer is good?
A good offer has to clear three separate bars, and the number in the letter only speaks to one of them. Is it competitive for that role, level and location — a market-rate question that needs benchmark data from a site collecting reported salaries. Is the whole package bigger or smaller than the headline — base salary is usually only 70% to 90% of what an offer is worth, with the rest in the bonus target, the employer 401(k) match, health and HSA contributions, equity and paid time off. And what does it leave you each month where the job actually is, after that state's income tax and that city's rent. This calculator answers the second and third questions; it does not benchmark your offer against what other people in the same role are paid.
What is total compensation?
Total compensation is everything an employer gives you for the year, not just the salary line. It normally means base salary plus target bonus, the employer 401(k) match you would receive if you contribute enough to capture it, employer contributions to health cover or an HSA, and the annual vesting value of any equity — minus what you pay for benefits. Paid time off above the market norm has a dollar value too, though it is usually quoted separately. The gap between total compensation and base salary is the part of an offer people most often fail to price and most often fail to negotiate.
How do I work out what a job offer is actually worth?
Base salary is usually somewhere between 70% and 90% of what an offer is worth, so comparing two offers on base alone compares the wrong number. The full package is base salary, bonus target, employer 401(k) match, health and HSA contributions, equity, and paid time off — plus the cost of living where the job is. This calculator takes those seven inputs and turns them into one annual figure and one monthly take-home figure.
How much of my salary will I actually take home?
Take-home pay is your salary minus federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA — Social Security at 6.2% of wages up to an annual cap, plus Medicare at 1.45% with no cap. For most salaries in the $60,000–$150,000 range that lands somewhere between roughly 65% and 78% of gross, with the spread driven mostly by state: nine states levy no tax on wage income at all, while California and New York sit at the other end. This calculator estimates all three components for the state you pick.
Is an employer 401(k) match really worth that much?
A dollar-for-dollar match up to 5% of salary is a 5% raise you only receive if you contribute, and it is an immediate 100% return on the money you put in — nothing else in a normal financial life pays that. On an $80,000 salary a 5% match is $4,000 a year. Contributing below the match cap is the one situation where the money left on the table is unambiguous, which is why this calculator prices the match separately rather than folding it into a total.
How do I compare two job offers in different cities?
Convert both offers to monthly take-home pay in their own state, then subtract a realistic rent for each city — the same job at the same salary leaves very different amounts depending on where it is. A $120,000 offer in a state with no income tax and $1,800 rent leaves substantially more each month than $135,000 in a high-tax state with $3,200 rent. This calculator puts market rent for the city next to the take-home figure so the comparison is made on what is left over, not on the headline.
Should I count equity as part of my salary?
Equity is compensation, but it is not the same kind of compensation as salary: it vests over time, is usually forfeited if you leave early, and in a private company it cannot be sold until an exit that may never happen. The common approach is to value public-company RSUs at their current grant value divided over the vesting schedule, and to treat private-company options as upside rather than income you can spend. This calculator shows equity as a separate line so it never quietly inflates the number you plan your rent against.
Estimates to help you think, not financial advice. See all 7 free calculators.
What to work out next
An offer sets the ceiling. These three decide where inside it you land — and each one starts from a number this page already produced.
- Rent AffordabilityYou entered a city and a rent figure above. This works the other way round: it takes the salary and returns the rent range that fits it, plus the cash you need upfront before you get keys.
- Money PlanThe match this page priced is the first move, not the whole plan. This puts the match, a safety buffer, high-interest debt and retirement in order for the salary you just entered.
- Monthly Saving ImpactAn offer’s 401(k) match is a monthly amount. This compounds any monthly amount out to one, ten and thirty years, which is the honest way to see what capturing a match is worth over a career.
All of them are free and need no account. Browse every WeLeap money calculator.
What this calculator does not account for
Every figure here is an estimate for planning, not personalised financial advice, and not a representation of what you will actually be paid or what any investment will return. Tax is estimated for a single filer using federal brackets, your state's income tax and FICA. It does not model filing jointly, dependants, pre-tax deductions such as your own 401(k) or HSA contributions, itemised deductions, or the local and city income taxes that apply in places like New York City — all of which move the real number. Bonus and equity are taxed at your estimated effective rate rather than at supplemental withholding rates.
Rent figures are market estimates for a metro area, not quotes for a specific apartment. Equity is shown at the value you enter, which for a private company is a scenario rather than a price. WeLeap is not a registered investment adviser and does not provide personalised investment or tax advice — for your own situation, speak to a licensed professional.