How do you compare two job offers with different salary, bonus, equity and benefits?

Step 1: Base salary

Start with the easy number. Base is guaranteed, it sets future raises, and it anchors your next negotiation. A higher base usually beats an equal amount of bonus or equity, because it compounds. Here is how that compounding works.

Step 2: Bonus, at the realistic number

An offer that says “target bonus 15%” is not saying you get 15%. Ask what the plan paid out in each of the last two or three years, and whether it depends on company results, team results or your own. Use the historical payout, not the target, in your math. If the company will not say, count half the target.

Step 3: Equity, valued with discipline

• Public company RSUs: the grant value divided by the vesting years, typically four. Discount for price swings if the stock is volatile.
• Private company options: ask for the number of shares, the strike price, the latest 409A valuation, and the total shares outstanding. Without the last number, the share count means nothing.
• Vesting: most grants have a one-year cliff. If you might leave in year one, the equity is worth zero to you.

For private company equity, a conservative approach is to value it at a fraction of paper value, or at zero, and treat anything it pays as upside. Many early-stage options never pay out. Benefit costs are climbing, see what to check at open enrollment.

Step 4: Retirement and health

• Retirement match: a 4% match on $150,000 is $6,000 a year, but only if you contribute enough to capture it and stay long enough for it to vest. The IRS publishes the vesting rules and the annual contribution limits.
• Health premiums: compare what comes out of each paycheck for the coverage you need, including family coverage if you carry it.
• Out-of-pocket risk: a plan with a $6,000 deductible can cost more than a higher premium plan if anyone in your household uses care regularly.

Step 5: Put it in a table

Component	Offer A	Offer B
Base salary	$150,000	$165,000
Expected bonus	$15,000	$0
Equity per year	$20,000 (public RSUs)	$10,000 (private, discounted)
Retirement match	$6,000	$3,300
Health premiums	minus $2,400	minus $6,000
Annual total	$188,600	$172,300

The higher base loses by about $16,000 a year once everything is counted. That is the point of the table: the headline number and the real number often point in different directions. Run your own two offers through the offer comparison calculator to see the 10-year difference.

Step 6: What does money not measure?

• The manager. The biggest predictor of whether you grow or leave in a year.
• The next role. Which job gets you closer to the role after this one?
• Stability. Runway at a startup, layoff history at a larger company.
• Time. Commute and flexibility are worth money. Price them if you can.

What should you ask before you compare?

• What did the bonus plan actually pay out last year?
• What is the vesting schedule, and is there a one-year cliff?
• For options: shares outstanding, the latest 409A value and the exercise window if you leave.
• When is the first compensation review, and what does a typical increase look like?
• Does the offer ask you to repay a sign-on bonus or training if you leave, or to sign a noncompete? Noncompetes are void in California, and most training-cost and debt repayment terms will be too in contracts signed from January 1, 2027; see the noncompete and stay-or-pay rules.

Step 7: Can one offer improve the other?

A competing offer is real leverage. Tell the preferred employer, in writing, that you have another offer and what it would take to accept theirs. Ask for the gap in the component they can move most easily, often a sign-on bonus or equity. If family depends on your income, here is how to set your floor first, and here is how California’s pay range rules help.

Once you hold an offer you want to push on, my counter-offer phrases give you the first lines to use.

Check any bonus for repayment terms before you compare totals, using California’s stay-or-pay rules for 2027, and read five questions to ask before signing a retention bonus.

For a related angle, see a one-page total compensation statement and which career skills compound.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.

Data current as of September 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.