Job Offer Comparison Calculator
How It Works
Comparing two job offers by salary alone is one of the most common — and costly — mistakes in a job search. A $120,000 offer in a high-tax state can leave you with less spendable income than a $110,000 offer in a no-tax state, and a smaller salary with a generous 401(k) match can outpace a larger salary with none. This calculator compares offers the way your bank account actually experiences them: on net dollars, after taxes, plus retirement benefits.
The comparison starts with take-home pay. Each offer's salary and bonus are run through the same federal and state tax engine used by our Take-Home Pay Calculator — applying 2026 IRS federal brackets, your filing status, Social Security and Medicare (FICA) withholding, and the specific state's income tax rules (including the nine states with no income tax at all). This is the same verified withholding logic across both offers, so the comparison is apples-to-apples and never favors one offer due to a calculation shortcut.
On top of net pay, the calculator adds employer 401(k) matching — money your employer contributes to your retirement account that you'd otherwise leave on the table. A match is entered as a percentage of salary, capped at whatever maximum your employer offers (for example, "100% match up to 6% of salary"). This match is real compensation, even though it doesn't show up in your paycheck, and ignoring it understates the true value of an offer with strong retirement benefits.
Total comp in this calculator equals net take-home pay plus the dollar value of the 401(k) match. The delta between Offer A and Offer B shows exactly how many more (or fewer) real dollars one offer delivers per year once taxes and retirement benefits are accounted for. A comp-delta chart visualizes the breakdown so you can see, at a glance, how much of each offer's total value comes from take-home pay versus employer match.
Numbers aren't the whole story. Health insurance premiums and deductibles, PTO and parental leave policies, remote-work flexibility, signing bonuses and equity/RSU grants, commute costs, cost-of-living differences between cities, and career growth potential can all outweigh a modest dollar gap. Use this calculator to establish the real financial baseline, then weigh the non-financial factors on top of that foundation before deciding.
Bonuses entered here are treated as fully taxable ordinary income added to gross salary for the year, consistent with how most signing and annual bonuses are ultimately taxed once reconciled on your tax return (even though employers often withhold bonuses at a flat supplemental rate during the year — see our Bonus Tax Calculator for that withholding-specific view). This calculator focuses on your actual annual tax liability and net comp, not paycheck-by-paycheck withholding mechanics.
Formula Breakdown
Each offer is evaluated independently, then compared: grossIncome = salary + bonus netPay = calculateTakeHomePay(grossIncome, state, filingStatus) — same engine as Take-Home Pay Calculator 401(k) match = salary × min(matchPercent, matchCap) / 100 totalComp = netPay + 401(k) match delta = totalComp(Offer A) − totalComp(Offer B) Example (both offers, single filer): - Offer A: $110,000 salary, TX (no state tax), 6% match capped at 6% → netPay ≈ $89,193.50 + match $6,600.00 = totalComp ≈ $95,793.50 - Offer B: $120,000 salary, CA, 3% match capped at 6% → netPay ≈ $89,914.65 + match $3,600.00 = totalComp ≈ $93,514.65 - Delta: Offer A pays ≈ $2,278.85/year more in real terms despite the lower headline salary, because CA state tax and a smaller match erode Offer B's advantage.
Data Source
Composes the existing Take-Home Pay Calculator engine, which applies 2026 IRS federal tax brackets, standard deductions, and FICA (Social Security/Medicare) rates from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and SSA.gov, plus state-specific tax data compiled from each state's Department of Revenue. 401(k) match modeling uses user-entered match percentage and cap; no year-specific match data is hardcoded.
View sourceLast verified: 2026-07-03
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