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Offer Comparison Worksheet
$9.99Two offers priced as packages rather than as salaries. A discretionary bonus is discounted for what it actually is, the employer retirement contribution goes in as dollars rather than a formula, the health premium you pay comes off, and private equity is valued at what you would genuinely pay for it in cash today. It deliberately does NOT compute your tax — filing status, dependents and local tax all move it, and a guessed figure would look authoritative and be wrong; enter each offer's real take-home instead and the comparable-net row does the rest. Ends with the five things no number on the page captures, because in a close decision those are the decision.
Format: Excel (.xlsx)
Look inside
Preview only — scroll to read it. The file you download is fully editable.
| Offer Comparison Worksheet | |||
| Two offers, priced properly. A salary is one line of a package, and the lines that are left out — the employer's retirement contribution, the health premium you pay, a bonus that is only a target — routinely move the answer by more than the base salary does. Fill the blue cells for each offer; every… | |||
| Part 1 — Which offers | |||
| Offer A | Offer B | ||
| Employer | Northwind Systems | Copperline Health | |
| State (for tax) | Texas | California | The two offers can be in different states, and that is where most of the surprise lives. |
| Remote? Y / N | N | Y | |
| Part 2 — Cash | |||
| Base salary | 118000 | 112000 | The only line that compounds into every future raise, match and pension calculation. |
| Bonus — target % | 10 | 12 | As a number, e.g. 15 — not 0.15. Leave at 0 if there is no bonus. |
| Bonus — guaranteed? 1 = yes, 0 = no | 0 | 1 | A guaranteed bonus is deferred salary. A discretionary one is a hope with a number attached, and the row below discounts it. |
| Discount applied to a DISCRETIONARY bonus (%) | 50 | 50 | Yellow because it is a judgement, not a fact. 50% is a starting point; ask what the target actually paid for the last three years and use that. |
| Bonus counted here | ƒx | ƒx | Target percent of base, discounted by the row above unless the bonus is guaranteed. |
| Signing bonus (first year only) | 5000 | 0 | Counted in year one only — the total below says so. Check the clawback period before you rely on it. |
| Part 3 — The lines nobody prices | |||
| Employer retirement contribution, in DOLLARS | 3540 | 6720 | Not the formula — the dollars. A 100%-of-6% match on $100,000 is $6,000 the salary figure never shows, and it is not taxed as income to you now. |
| Your annual health premium contribution | 4800 | 1560 | What comes out of YOUR pay for the year, for the plan you would actually choose. Any HR department can produce this figure. A $250/month difference is $3,000 of pre-tax money. |
| Equity — your honest cash-today value | 0 | 4000 | What you would genuinely pay for it today in cash. For public, liquid, vested stock that is near face; for private-company equity it is usually a fraction of the quoted number. |
| Other annual allowances (stipends, transit, tuition) | 0 | 1200 | |
| Paid time off — days | 15 | 22 | Only worth counting if you would otherwise take the time unpaid. The row below prices a day at base salary / 260. |
| PTO valued at base salary | ƒx | ƒx | |
| Part 4 — The package | |||
| Total package, year one | ƒx | ƒx | Base + bonus + signing + employer retirement + equity + allowances + PTO, less the health premium you pay. |
| Total package, steady state (no signing bonus) | ƒx | ƒx | Year two onward. A signing bonus is a one-off, and comparing two offers on a year-one number flatters whichever one front-loads. |
| Difference, steady state (B − A) | ƒx | ƒx | Both columns show the same figure so it is visible whichever offer you are looking at. |
| Part 5 — After tax, which is the only comparison that counts | |||
| This worksheet does NOT compute your tax — filing status, dependents, deductions and local tax all change it, and a guessed figure here would be worse than none. Work each offer's take-home out with a real calculator, enter the two figures below, and the comparison uses them. calculatorbystate.com's… | |||
| Take-home pay on the BASE SALARY alone | 92600 | 81900 | From a take-home calculator, for the state in row 7. Base only — bonus and equity are taxed differently and are handled by the package rows above. |
| Effective tax rate on base | ƒx | ƒx | What the two offers actually cost you in tax, which is the number a cross-state move turns on. |
| Comparable net: take-home + the untaxed-now lines | ƒx | ƒx | Take-home, plus the employer retirement contribution (yours, not taxed as income now), less the health premium you pay. The closest honest single number. |
| Comparable net difference (B − A) | ƒx | ƒx | |
| Part 6 — What no number here captures | |||
| Offer A | Offer B | Why it belongs on the page | |
| Commute / remote terms in writing? | The most valuable non-cash item in most offers, and the one most often agreed verbally and never documented. | ||
| Title, and what it is worth at your NEXT negotiation | Free for them to give. Frequently worth a great deal later. | ||
| Manager, and whether you have met them | The single largest determinant of whether you stay, and it is not on the offer letter. | ||
| Stability — funding, profitability, layoffs | Equity and bonus are both worth zero at a company that does not survive. | ||
| Review date agreed, in writing | Six months with a defined target costs them nothing today and is enforceable if written down. | ||
| COUNT A BENEFIT ONLY IF YOU WOULD USE IT. Unlimited PTO nobody takes is worth zero; a gym membership you will not visit is worth zero; a 401(k) match you cannot afford to contribute enough to earn is worth zero until you can. Pricing a benefit you will not use is how a worse offer wins on paper. | |||
| This worksheet is a general planning tool, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Rates, fees, and program limits vary by lender, location, and your individual circumstances — confirm real numbers with a lender before making a decision. For real, sourced state-by-state figures, see calculatorbystate.c… | |||
| Notes | |||
This template is general information, not financial, legal, or tax advice.