How to Compare a Written Job Offer With Your Current Job’s Total Compensation

The better job offer is not necessarily the one with the higher salary. Compare the two jobs line by line using written terms: separate guaranteed cash from bonuses and equity, calculate your own benefit costs, check vesting and start dates, and keep hours, flexibility, commuting and role fit visible beside the financial figures.

Build the comparison from your current compensation statement, the offer letter, benefit-plan documents and payroll information. Produce separate totals for dependable cash, conditional pay, employer retirement money likely to vest, employee-paid costs and usable benefits. That prevents a discretionary bonus or an employer accounting cost from being mistaken for money you will actually receive.

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What “total compensation” should mean in this comparison

Total compensation is the complete package attached to a job, not a single salary number. For a personal decision, however, the useful question is not what the employer spends. It is what you can receive, what you must pay, how certain each item is, when it becomes available and whether you will use it.

Keep these categories separate throughout your worksheet:

• Guaranteed cash: base salary or wages, contractual allowances and payments promised without a performance condition.
• Conditional cash: bonuses, commissions, profit sharing and other amounts tied to performance, company results or management discretion.
• Equity: shares, restricted stock, options or other awards, shown with their grant terms and vesting rather than as certain cash.
• Employer retirement money: matching or other contributions, adjusted for eligibility and the portion you are likely to keep if you leave.
• Employee costs: health premiums, deductibles, coinsurance, required retirement contributions, commuting and other costs created by the job.
• Usable benefits: paid leave, insurance, education assistance and other benefits that fit your actual circumstances.
• Work conditions: schedule, hours, flexibility, location, commute, manager, role and workplace environment.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups employer costs into paid leave, supplemental pay, insurance, retirement and savings and legally required benefits. That framework is a useful checklist for finding categories you might overlook; its averages are not the personal value of your own package.

Collect the documents before comparing numbers

Do not rely on a recruiter’s summary or a verbal promise. Put the written offer beside your current compensation and benefits records, and mark any item that still needs documentation.

Documents for the current job

• Your latest compensation statement, pay stub or annual total-rewards statement.
• Benefit summaries and the health plan’s premium, deductible, copay, coinsurance and out-of-pocket information.
• Retirement-plan rules, including the match formula, contribution limits, eligibility and vesting schedule.
• Equity grant agreements, current vesting schedules and any rules that apply when employment ends.
• Bonus, commission or incentive-plan documents, including the measurement period and payment date.
• Paid-time-off, holiday, parental-leave, disability and life-insurance summaries.

Documents for the prospective job

• The complete offer letter, including salary, start date, allowances, signing or relocation payments, contingencies and deadlines.
• Summary plan descriptions or equivalent documents for health, retirement, disability and life coverage.
• The full bonus or commission plan and any equity award agreement or plan prospectus.
• A premium sheet showing the employee cost for the coverage tier you would actually elect.
• Policies that determine when benefits begin, how leave accrues and what happens if you resign or are terminated.

The New York State Department of Labor’s Salary Negotiation Guide advises: “Whether your offer is initial or final, make sure you get the offer in writing before you commit.” Take time to review the entire package before accepting, and ask for documents that are referenced but not attached.

Build a side-by-side compensation worksheet

Use one row for each compensation item. Record the amount, frequency, certainty, start date, conditions and what happens if you leave. This structure makes it difficult to hide a one-time payment or an unvested promise inside an annual total.

Category	Current job evidence	Written offer evidence	Fields to record
Base pay	Pay stub or compensation statement	Offer letter	Annual amount, pay frequency, effective date and salary-review timing
Guaranteed payments	Contract or policy	Offer letter or relocation agreement	Amount, whether recurring, payment date and repayment condition
Bonus or commission	Incentive plan	Incentive plan	Eligibility, target, maximum, formula, discretion, measurement period and payout date
Equity	Grant agreement	Award agreement	Grant type, number or units, vesting, restrictions, expiration and treatment at departure
Retirement	Plan summary and account record	Plan summary	Employer formula, employee contribution, eligibility date, vesting and forfeiture risk
Health coverage	Premium and coverage summary	Premium and coverage summary	Tier, annual premium, deductible, cost sharing, network, prescriptions and account funding
Leave and insurance	Policy and benefits statement	Policy and benefits summary	Accrual, waiting periods, carryover, replacement income and coverage limits
Work conditions	Actual schedule and commute	Written or confirmed expectations	Hours, location, remote rules, travel, commute cost and role scope

Save the source document and the date you checked it. If an amount is not written, label it as unconfirmed rather than filling the gap with an assumption.

Compare guaranteed cash first

Start with the money that is promised independently of performance. Record recurring and one-time amounts on separate lines.

Recurring base pay

Convert hourly wages to an annual figure only when the expected hours are clear. For a salaried job, use the stated annual salary and note the date it takes effect. If the offer starts partway through a year, show both the full-year rate and the first-year amount you will actually receive.

Allowances and guaranteed payments

Include a contractual car, housing, phone or other allowance only if the written terms make it payable. Note whether it is taxable, reimbursed against receipts or available only for a limited period. A guaranteed signing or relocation payment belongs in a separate one-time column; it improves first-year cash but does not raise your recurring compensation.

Separate first-year and ongoing totals

Use two subtotals:

• Recurring guaranteed cash: base pay plus recurring guaranteed allowances.
• First-year guaranteed cash: recurring guaranteed cash plus one-time payments scheduled for the first year.

This avoids treating a signing payment as if it will appear every year. Check for repayment clauses if you leave before a stated date.

Handle bonuses, commissions and equity as conditional

Variable compensation can be valuable, but a target is not guaranteed cash. Put each program on its own line and preserve its conditions.

Questions for a bonus or commission plan

• Who is eligible, and when does eligibility begin?
• What performance measures, thresholds and weighting determine payment?
• Is there a target, a maximum and a floor?
• Can management change or cancel the plan?
• Must you be employed on the payment date?
• When is the measurement period complete and when is money paid?
• How have your current payments been calculated, and is the new employer willing to provide historical ranges?

Show conservative, target and maximum cases rather than one headline number. A conservative case should use a defensible low outcome, not a figure chosen to make the offer look attractive. Keep the target visible, but do not add it to guaranteed cash.

Equity needs its own analysis

Record whether the award is restricted stock, restricted stock units, options or another instrument; the number of shares or units; the vesting schedule; any cliff; exercise price for options; expiration; trading or transfer restrictions; and the rules after termination. A grant’s quoted value can change, and unvested awards can be forfeited. Treat uncertain future value as a range or scenario, not as salary.

The Department of Labor identifies commissions, bonuses and equity as elements to examine in an offer, but the value of an individual award depends on its actual written terms. Ask for the agreement before assigning a value.

Compare retirement plans and the risk of leaving

Retirement benefits often look simple in a recruiting summary and become expensive to misunderstand. Record the employer formula in plain language, such as a percentage match on a defined portion of pay, and calculate the employee contribution required to receive it.

Check eligibility and vesting

• When can you enroll and begin receiving employer contributions?
• Must you contribute a particular percentage to receive the full match?
• Is the employer contribution immediately vested or subject to a graded or cliff schedule?
• Does a year of service require a specific number of hours or a calendar date?
• What amount would you forfeit if you left after six months, one year or another likely departure point?

Calculate employer retirement dollars likely to vest, not simply the maximum contribution shown in a brochure. If you would not contribute enough to obtain the match, the unused amount is not part of your personal package. The Department of Labor notes that employers are not required to offer a retirement plan and that changing jobs can affect vesting, so compare the actual plan rules rather than assuming the new plan is equivalent.

Account for money you leave behind

Your current job may contain unvested matching contributions or equity that you would lose by resigning. Put the forfeited amount in a transition-risk column. Do not automatically demand that the new employer replace it, but use the documented loss when deciding what to negotiate.

Compare health plans by your own expected cost

A lower premium can be offset by a higher deductible, coinsurance or out-of-pocket maximum. Compare plans using the coverage tier you would actually enroll in and the care your household is likely to use.

Record the premium and exposure

• Employee premium per pay period and annualized premium.
• Deductible for individual and family coverage.
• Copays or coinsurance for primary care, specialists, urgent care, emergency care, hospital services and prescriptions.
• Annual out-of-pocket maximum and what counts toward it.
• Provider and hospital network, geographic availability and referral rules.
• Prescription formulary and specialty-drug treatment.
• Employer contribution to a health savings account, health reimbursement arrangement or other funded account.

Estimate an ordinary-use case and a high-use case. For example, an ordinary-use case might include routine visits and regular prescriptions; a high-use case can test the plan’s out-of-pocket maximum. Do not call either estimate certain: actual claims, network use and plan rules determine the result.

Ask for documents when a label is vague

Terms such as “comprehensive coverage” or “competitive benefits” do not reveal a deductible, network or prescription restriction. Request the summary of benefits and coverage and the premium schedule. Compare the prospective plan directly with your current plan, as Department of Labor guidance recommends.

Add leave, insurance and benefits you can actually use

List paid time off by type rather than combining every day into one attractive number. Compare vacation or general PTO, sick leave, holidays, parental leave and other protected or paid leave. Record accrual rate, waiting period, carryover, blackout rules and whether unused time is paid when employment ends under the applicable policy and law.

Insurance and income protection

Compare employer-paid and employee-paid disability and life coverage, the percentage of income replaced, benefit duration, exclusions, evidence-of-insurability rules and portability. A policy that costs the employer money may be of little personal value if it does not cover your needs or cannot continue after you leave.

Other benefits

Check education or student-loan assistance, professional dues, certification support, dependent-care programs, wellness benefits, equipment allowances and commuter programs. Record the eligibility rule, annual limit, tax treatment and whether you would use it. Do not assign full retail value to a benefit you would never claim.

Paid leave and insurance are legitimate parts of compensation, but a benefit’s personal value depends on your circumstances. The employer-cost categories published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics help you remember to ask about them; they do not justify applying an average percentage to your salary.

Separate employer cost from your after-tax value

A gross package comparison is not automatically a take-home-pay comparison. Taxes, payroll deductions and the timing of payments can change the result.

The Internal Revenue Service states that fringe benefits are generally included in gross income, subject to exceptions and valuation rules. Employer-paid health coverage is generally excluded from specified federal wage taxes, also subject to exceptions. Retirement contributions, equity, allowances and reimbursements can each have different treatment. Use the plan and payroll documents, and obtain tax advice for a situation that is material or unusual.

For your worksheet, show:

• Gross amount or employee cost.
• Whether the amount is taxable, tax-deferred or generally excluded under the applicable rules.
• When the amount is paid or deducted.
• Any contribution you must make to receive the benefit.

Do not reduce every item by an assumed tax rate. That creates false precision and can misstate benefits with special rules.

Put work conditions beside the financial totals

Money cannot capture every cost or benefit of changing jobs. Record expected hours, schedule predictability, overtime or travel, remote or hybrid flexibility, required office days, location, commute time and transportation cost. Include role scope, manager, advancement opportunity and workplace environment as separate notes rather than converting them into an arbitrary dollar value.

Measure the practical trade-offs

• Calculate additional weekly commuting time and out-of-pocket travel cost.
• Check whether remote work is a written policy, a manager practice or merely an informal expectation.
• Compare start and end times with childcare, eldercare, health appointments or other fixed commitments.
• Ask how often travel, on-call work or schedule changes occur.
• Assess whether the role changes your skills, stability, autonomy or career direction.

The Department of Labor’s participant guidance places hours, flexibility, vacation and retirement alongside salary and benefits. Keep those factors visible even when the financial totals favor one job.

Calculate decision-ready totals without hiding uncertainty

Create a decision table with separate columns for certainty and timing. A useful layout is:

Measure	Current job	Written offer	How to interpret it
Recurring guaranteed cash	Documented current amount	Documented offered amount	Most dependable annual cash before employee costs and taxes
First-year one-time cash	Documented, if any	Signing, relocation or other stated payment	Do not treat as recurring compensation; check repayment terms
Conditional pay	Low, target and maximum cases	Low, target and maximum cases	Keep eligibility, discretion and payment date visible
Employer retirement dollars likely to vest	Formula adjusted for vesting	Formula adjusted for vesting	Subtract employee contributions needed to receive the amount
Annual health and other employee costs	Premiums plus realistic exposure	Premiums plus realistic exposure	Use coverage tier and likely utilization; show high-use risk separately
Usable leave and benefits	Benefits you can claim	Benefits you can claim	Value only what fits your household and eligibility
Transition loss	Unvested amounts left behind	Replacement or make-whole terms, if written	One-time decision cost, not an annual benefit
Work arrangement	Actual schedule and commute	Written or confirmed expectations	Compare time, flexibility, travel and role fit separately

A simple cash view is:

Dependable annual value = recurring guaranteed cash − recurring employee costs + employer retirement dollars likely to vest.

Keep first-year payments, conditional compensation, equity scenarios and transition losses outside that dependable subtotal. You can then compare an ordinary case and a downside case without pretending that uncertain money is guaranteed.

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Worked example: why the higher salary may not win

Consider this illustrative comparison, using invented figures solely to show the method. Your current job pays $82,000 with a $3,000 employer retirement contribution that is fully vested. The written offer pays $88,000, includes a target bonus of $8,800 that is discretionary, requires a $2,400 annual health premium instead of your current $1,200 premium, and matches retirement contributions only after a six-month eligibility period with a vesting schedule.

The offer raises recurring salary by $6,000, but the additional health premium reduces that difference by $1,200 before taxes. The target bonus stays in the conditional column. If you leave before the new match vests, the offer may also provide less retirement value during the transition than the headline formula suggests. A $5,000 signing payment could make the first year attractive while doing nothing for the second year. The worksheet exposes all three facts without declaring the offer good or bad in the abstract.

Resolve missing terms before accepting

Make a short list of unanswered questions and send it in writing. Prioritize terms that change the value or risk of the offer.

1. Ask for the complete health-plan summary, premium schedule and network information.
2. Ask for the retirement-plan formula, eligibility date, employee contribution requirement and vesting schedule.
3. Request the full bonus or commission plan, including discretion, measurement period and payment-date employment requirement.
4. Request the equity award agreement and ask what happens to vested and unvested awards when employment ends.
5. Confirm the start date, first pay date, benefit effective date and treatment of any waiting period.
6. Confirm remote-work, schedule, travel and location expectations with the hiring manager.
7. Ask whether signing or relocation money must be repaid and under what circumstances.
8. State the specific terms that matter most and propose a clear alternative, such as higher base pay, a guaranteed first-year bonus, an earlier eligibility date, additional equity or a make-whole payment for documented forfeiture.

Keep the negotiation focused. A request tied to a documented loss or a written condition is easier to evaluate than a demand based on an unexplained total-compensation percentage.

Common comparison mistakes and their fixes

Counting every target bonus as salary

Fix: show guaranteed, conservative, target and maximum cases in separate columns.

Using an employer-cost average as personal value

Fix: use your premium, expected claims exposure, contribution and actual use. Employer-cost statistics are category guides, not a personalized valuation.

Ignoring vesting and eligibility dates

Fix: calculate what is available at three, six and twelve months—or at the dates relevant to the plan—and what would be forfeited if you leave.

Comparing health premiums without coverage

Fix: compare deductible, cost sharing, network, prescriptions and out-of-pocket maximum for the same coverage tier.

Turning a signing payment into a permanent raise

Fix: keep one-time cash in a first-year column and check repayment language.

Ignoring the cost of time

Fix: record commute, required office days, schedule predictability and travel beside the financial table.

Assuming a verbal promise will survive a change of manager

Fix: ask for material terms in the offer, plan document or written policy before committing.

A final checklist for the decision

• Offer letter and current compensation statement are saved and dated.
• Recurring guaranteed cash is separated from first-year payments.
• Bonus, commission and equity terms are listed with conditions and payment timing.
• Retirement contributions are adjusted for eligibility, required employee contributions and vesting.
• Unvested money forfeited by leaving is identified.
• Health premiums and realistic low-use and high-use costs are compared for the correct coverage tier.
• Leave, disability, life insurance and other benefits are valued only when usable.
• Tax treatment and payroll deductions are not assumed to be identical.
• Hours, flexibility, commute, location, role and workplace environment are recorded.
• Missing terms have been requested in writing and the acceptance deadline is clear.
• The decision uses at least a dependable case and a downside case, not only the employer’s target scenario.

Geography, plan rules and personal circumstances matter

This method is broadly useful, but the cited guidance is primarily from U.S. federal sources and New York State. Benefit availability, tax treatment, labor protections, plan rights and payroll rules vary by country, state, employer and employee classification. Readers outside the United States should use local government and plan documents. Even within the United States, the documents governing your employment control over a generic summary.

No worksheet can decide which job is better without your actual offer, current compensation records, health needs, retirement rules, likely hours and commute, risk tolerance and priorities. The purpose of the comparison is to make those trade-offs explicit so you can negotiate or accept with a clear view of what is guaranteed, what is conditional and what the change will cost.

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