Counteroffer or New Job? Compare Them in the Same Calculator
You accept a new job, hand in your notice, and your current employer asks you to stay with a raise. Or you mention an outside offer and your manager comes back with a counteroffer. Either way, you now have two packages in front of you and usually very little time. Comparing them by base salary alone is the most common mistake, because the two offers almost never differ only in salary.
This guide compares a counteroffer and a new job with the Job Offer Comparison Calculator and the Pay Raise Calculator, then covers the questions that numbers cannot answer. It does not tell you which to choose. That depends on things only you know, and no comparison guarantees how either job will turn out.
The situation
You earn $68,000. A new employer offers $76,000. Your current employer counters with $74,000. On salary alone the new job wins by $2,000 a year.
Start with the Pay Raise Calculator in target mode to see each option as a raise on what you earn now:
| Counteroffer | New job | |
|---|---|---|
| New salary | $74,000.00 | $76,000.00 |
| Raise | 8.82% | 11.76% |
| Per year | $6,000.00 | $8,000.00 |
| Per month | $500.00 | $666.67 |
| Per paycheck (26) | $230.77 | $307.69 |
Both are substantial raises. The difference between them is $76.92 a paycheck before tax. That is the gap everything else has to be weighed against.
Put the whole packages side by side
Now gather everything else each option includes. For the counteroffer, that is your current benefits, which you know well. For the new job, it is whatever the offer letter and benefits summary say, and it is worth asking for those documents if you do not have them. In this example:
| Counteroffer (stay) | New employer | |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $74,000 | $76,000 |
| Target bonus | $3,000 | $0 |
| Employer retirement match | $2,960 | $2,280 |
| Benefits value (employer's share of health cover, etc.) | $6,500 | $5,200 |
| Paid days off | 20 | 15 |
| Value of paid days off | $5,692.31 | $4,384.62 |
| Total compensation | $92,152.31 | $87,864.62 |
On the whole package the counteroffer comes out $4,287.69 ahead, despite the lower salary. The calculator ranks it first.
How the calculator gets there: it adds base, bonus, equity per year, employer match and benefits value, then adds the value of paid days off, which it works out as base salary divided by 260 working days, times the number of days. That PTO figure is not extra cash. It is a way of crediting an offer that pays you for more days you are not working, so that two packages with different leave can be compared in one number. Both offers here are in the same place, so the cost-of-living setting stays at 100 for both.
Test the assumptions
A comparison is only as good as its inputs, and some inputs are softer than others. Run it again with the soft ones changed.
Take the bonus out
A target bonus is not a guaranteed one. With the counteroffer's bonus set to zero, its total falls to $89,152.31, still ahead of the new job's $87,864.62, but by $1,287.69 rather than $4,287.69. If the bonus at your current employer has paid out reliably, the first comparison is reasonable. If it is uncertain, the second is the safer one to lean on.
Check the benefits values
"Benefits value" is the one input you have to estimate. A fair way is to use the employer's share of health insurance premiums for the coverage you would actually choose, which is often shown in benefits documents or available from HR. If you are not sure, run the comparison with the two benefits values equal and see whether the answer changes.
Find the break-even
Another useful question: how high would the new job's base salary need to be to match the counteroffer on total compensation, with everything else as offered? Here the answer is about $80,054. Entered into the calculator, that salary brings the new job's total to $92,152.31, level with the counteroffer. So the real gap between the two options is not $2,000 the other way; it is roughly $4,054 in the counteroffer's favor on base salary terms.
That number is useful if you are still talking to the new employer. Asking whether there is flexibility on salary, bonus or leave, with an accurate explanation of why, is a normal part of the process. Our guide to negotiating a job offer honestly covers how.
If the new job is in a more expensive place
The comparison changes again if the new role means moving somewhere with higher costs. The calculator's cost-of-living setting takes an index you supply, where 100 is your reference point, and divides each offer's total by it. Suppose the new employer raised its base to $82,000 to reflect a city with an index of 110, with the match rising in proportion to $2,460. Its total compensation becomes $94,390.77, which beats the counteroffer's $92,152.31 on paper. Adjusted for the higher costs, it is worth $85,809.79 in your current city's terms, and the counteroffer ranks first again. The index is a rough tool: the calculator divides the whole package by it, while in reality some costs, such as rent, rise much faster than others. If a move is involved, our guide to whether a higher salary in an expensive city is really more goes into how to choose an index and check it against your own budget.
Hours change the picture too
If the new job comes with longer hours, convert both salaries to hourly in the Salary to Hourly Calculator. $74,000 on a 40-hour week is $35.58 an hour. $76,000 on a 45-hour week is $32.48. If that is the trade, the new job pays $3.10 less for each hour you work, before counting anything else in the package.
The questions numbers cannot answer
A counteroffer decision is rarely only about money. A few honest questions to ask yourself before you decide:
- Why were you looking? If it was mainly pay, a strong counteroffer may solve the problem. If it was the work, the manager, the hours or the lack of progression, more money does not change those, and the reasons you started looking will still be there.
- What changes if you stay? A counteroffer that includes a new title, different responsibilities or a clear plan is different from one that only adds salary. Ask what else would change.
- How will the relationship be? Some people stay after a counteroffer and do well; others find that trust takes time to rebuild. It depends heavily on the people involved.
- What does the new job offer that this one cannot? Skills, industry, scale, location, flexibility, a manager you want to learn from. These are often why the move was attractive in the first place.
- What have you already committed to? If you have accepted the new offer in writing, think carefully about the practical and professional consequences of withdrawing, and be straightforward with both employers.
There is no universal right answer, and you will find confident opinions in both directions. Your own reasons are the best guide.
Handling it fairly
- Be accurate about the outside offer. Do not inflate it. If your employer asks to see it, decide whether you are comfortable sharing; do not invent details.
- Do not use one offer only as leverage. If you have no intention of moving, starting a bidding process can damage your standing with both employers.
- Ask for time if you need it, and give a specific date. A day or two to review benefits documents is a reasonable request.
- Get the final terms in writing, whichever you choose.
A step-by-step comparison
- Enter your current salary and each option's salary in the Pay Raise Calculator, target mode, to see each as a raise.
- Collect bonus, match, benefits and paid leave for both. Ask for written details where you do not have them.
- Enter both packages in the Job Offer Comparison Calculator.
- Rerun with uncertain bonuses at zero and with benefits values equal, to see how robust the ranking is.
- Convert both salaries to hourly at the hours you expect to work.
- If you want a net figure, run each salary through the Take-Home Pay Calculator with your own effective tax rate. It applies one combined rate that you supply and does not model any jurisdiction, tax year or bracket, so the result is an estimate, not tax advice. If the two jobs are in different states or countries, find a rate for each from the relevant tax authority or a tax professional, because that alone can change the answer.
- Then put the numbers next to your reasons for looking, and decide.
What the calculators leave out
- Equity, if either offer includes it, is entered as a yearly value you estimate; the calculator cannot value it for you.
- Vesting, notice periods, probation and the risk of a new role are not modelled.
- Future raises are not projected. You can estimate them by running the Pay Raise Calculator once per year from each starting salary.
- Commuting, relocation and remote days are not included unless you fold them into the benefits value or the cost-of-living index yourself.
The headline salaries in this example point one way and the whole packages point the other. That is common, and it is why the comparison is worth the ten minutes it takes.