How much more do you need to earn working in the office? A job with no commute can be worth thousands more a year. Compare both jobs side by side.
An office job needs to cover your commute costs and the value you place on travel time to match an otherwise similar remote job. Taxes matter, too: a $5,000 raise leaves less than $5,000 after tax.
Enter your remote job in the calculator, then check Matching office salary. It estimates the office salary needed to match that job’s overall value.
A remote job with a lower salary can still offer better overall value if it saves enough on commuting costs and travel time. Benefits and taxes also affect the comparison.
Enter both offers to see which has the higher Real salary. This estimate includes the value of time and benefits, so a higher result does not always mean more cash to spend.
The calculator includes both travel expenses and the value of your commute time.
Select Edit commute to adjust the assumptions for your trip.
Yes. Set Days in office per week from 0 to 5 for each job. The calculator applies commute costs only to those days.
For example, a hybrid job with two office days includes two round trips per week.
Real salary is the calculator’s estimate of a job’s annual value after accounting for taxes, benefits, commuting, and paid time off.
It starts with base salary, subtracts estimated taxes and commute costs, including travel time, then adds employer health contributions, a 401(k) match, after-tax bonus and equity, and the estimated value of vacation time.
Use it to compare jobs. It includes noncash value, so it is different from your take-home pay.
The calculator estimates U.S. federal and state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare using the filing status and state you select for each job.
It supports single, married filing jointly, and head of household filing statuses. The estimate uses a standard deduction and excludes city taxes and itemized deductions. You can enter a custom rate if the built-in estimate does not fit your situation.
Commuting takes time out of your day. Assigning it a value helps you compare jobs with different travel demands.
By default, each commute hour is valued at 50% of your after-tax hourly pay. If you earn $50 an hour after tax, an hour of commuting reduces the comparison value by $25. This is a time cost, not an out-of-pocket expense.
You can change the percentage in Edit commute.
The calculator adds an estimated value for paid time off to your Real salary. Each hour off is valued at 50% of your after-tax hourly pay by default; you can adjust that percentage in the vacation settings.
Enter the number of days you expect to take. For unlimited PTO, the calculator uses 12 days as a default. That is an assumption, not a guarantee of how much time off you will take.
The value assigned to vacation helps compare offers; it is not extra pay.
You can add four parts of an offer:
For equity, enter the total grant and vesting schedule in the equity settings. The calculator works out the annual share.
The Real hourly figure compares a job’s value with the time it requires. It accounts for estimated taxes, commute expenses, and benefits, then divides by working hours plus commute hours. Holidays and vacation reduce the working hours.
A longer commute can lower the hourly result even when the base salary is higher. Use this rate to compare the return on your time.
No. These figures divide your Real salary by 12 months or 26 bi-weekly periods.
Because Real salary includes benefits and the value of time, these amounts are comparison estimates, not predictions of your bank deposits. Open the information icon beside each figure to see the gross-pay and tax breakdown.
Matching salary estimates the base salary needed for the other work arrangement to provide the same Real salary.
The matching office estimate assumes five commute days per week. Check its information icon for the commute assumptions used.
Enter one offer in each column of the calculator:
The summary shows which offer has the higher estimated Real salary and the difference between them. Review the breakdown in each column to see what drives the result.
Enter your current job and the new offer, then compare their estimated value. The Matching office salary or Matching remote salary gives you a starting point for discussing the pay needed to offset a change in work arrangement.
Review the assumptions, then select Download PDF to save the comparison for your conversation. The estimate helps explain your numbers; it does not set the market rate for the role.
Yes, the calculator is free and does not require an account. Calculations run in your browser.
We don’t receive the numbers you enter. The page address and downloaded PDF can contain your comparison, so check them before sharing.
Enter your offer in one column and the candidate’s current job or another offer in the other. Add the salary, work arrangement, commute, vacation, and each benefit.
The comparison shows how taxes, benefits, and commuting affect each offer’s estimated value. Walk through the assumptions with the candidate so they can see what matters most to them.
Base salary is the fixed pay for the role. Total compensation also includes employer-paid benefits, such as health contributions and a 401(k) match, plus any bonus and equity.
These additions can make an offer more valuable than its salary alone suggests. The calculator goes further by accounting for estimated taxes, commute costs, and time. Its Real salary is a comparison measure, not the same as gross total compensation.
Select the link icon at the top of the page to copy a link to your comparison. Anyone you send it to opens both jobs with your numbers and settings already in place.
The page address carries the same comparison as you edit, so you can copy it from there instead. To send a report rather than a link, select Download PDF.
The report includes the comparison summary, a chart for each job, a breakdown of taxes, costs, and benefits, and the inputs used.