Browse all calculators →
Income & Career
Income Comparison Salary Converter Contract vs Permanent Overtime Pay
More
All Calculators Guides
Home› Calculators› Income & Career› Income Comparison Calculator

Income Comparison Calculator
with True Hourly Rate & Benefits

Compare up to three job offers or income sources side by side. Enter salary, hourly rate, or contract day rate, add bonus, benefits and hours, and find which offer is genuinely best after standardising everything to the same basis.

Country
Currency
⚖
Compare Up to Three Income Sources
■ Offer A
Income & Type
$
Enter as annual salary, monthly, hourly, or daily — select the type below.
per
How this income is expressed. All types are normalised to annual.
Working Schedule
hrs
Contracted working hours per week.
wks
52 for salaried. Contract roles: billable weeks.
days
Annual + public holidays. Reduces working hours but not pay.
Extras
$
Expected annual bonus or variable pay.
$
Health insurance, pension top-up, gym, meals, etc.
$
Daily round-trip travel cost. Deducted from net income.
■ Offer B
Income & Type
$
Leave blank to only compare two offers.
per
Working Schedule
hrs
wks
days
Extras
$
$
$
■ Offer C
Income & Type
$
Optional third offer. Leave blank to compare two only.
per
Working Schedule
hrs
wks
days
Extras
$
$
$
Best offer by true hourly rate
—
—
Winner
Offer A Offer B Offer C
Annual Base — — —
+ Bonus — — —
+ Benefits — — —
− Commute — — —
Total Package — — —
Monthly — — —
Paid Leave — — —
Hours / Week — — —
Productive Hrs / Yr — — —
True £/hr — — —
Difference vs Best Offer
True Hourly Rate at Different Hours Per Week
Hrs / Week Offer A Offer B Offer C
✦ Cal, AI Explanation
Cal is reviewing your comparison...
💬 Ask Cal about your offers
Cal
Your comparison is ready. Ask me about the difference between the offers, what benefits are worth, or how working hours change the real rate.

⚖ Comparison tips

True hourly rate is the only fair basis for comparison — it accounts for hours, leave, bonus, and benefits on the same scale.
Longer hours dilute the hourly rate even at a higher salary. A role paying $90k for 50hrs beats $80k for 40hrs on salary but loses on hourly rate.
Benefits are real income. A $5,000 health insurance package is worth $5,000 whether or not you see it in your payslip.
Commute cost reduces your effective income. A daily $20 commute costs $5,000+ per year in after-tax money.
Paid leave increases your true hourly rate because you are paid without working those days.

Related Calculators

Salary Converter→ Contract vs Permanent→ Cost Per Hour Worked→ Overtime Pay→ Salary After Tax Global→

Related Guides

How to Compare Job Offers→ Salary vs Hourly: What to Know→

How income comparison works

Comparing job offers is harder than it looks because salaries, hourly rates, contract day rates, and packages are quoted in different units and come with different amounts of working time, benefits, and other variables attached. This calculator normalises every offer to the same basis so you can make a genuinely fair comparison.

The normalisation formula

Annual base = Income × conversion factor (hourly × hrs/wk × wks/yr; daily × days/yr)
Total package = Annual base + Bonus + Benefits − Annual commute cost
Productive hours = (hrs/wk × wks/yr) − (paid leave days × hrs/day)
True hourly rate = Total package ÷ Productive hours
The true hourly rate is the single most useful comparison metric because it captures how much you earn per hour of your life you give up, after accounting for all components of the package.

Why the true hourly rate is the right comparison metric

Two offers at exactly the same annual salary can have very different hourly rates. A role requiring 50 hours per week pays a lower effective hourly rate than a 40-hour role at the same salary. Add in differences in bonuses, benefits, commute cost, and paid leave, and the gap can be substantial.

Consider: Offer A pays $90,000 for 50 hours per week with 15 days leave and no benefits. Offer B pays $80,000 for 40 hours per week with 25 days leave, a $5,000 benefits package, and no commute. Offer B's total package is $85,000 with 1,760 productive hours — a true hourly rate of $48.30. Offer A's total package is $90,000 with 2,300 productive hours — a true hourly rate of just $39.13. Offer B wins on every hour-adjusted metric despite the lower headline salary.

OfferAnnualHours/wkLeave daysBenefitsTrue $/hr
A (high salary, long hours)$90,0005015$0$39.13
B (lower salary, standard hours)$80,0004025$5,000$48.30
C (contract, fewer weeks)$500/day × 220d400$0$54.69

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this calculator handle contract day rates?+
When you select day rate as the income type, the calculator multiplies the daily rate by the number of working days per year (weeks per year multiplied by 5) to get the annual base. Contract workers typically work fewer weeks than salaried employees due to gaps between contracts, so reducing weeks per year is important for a fair comparison. Benefits are set to zero by default for contract roles since most contractors receive no employer benefits, but you can add any value you personally provide yourself.
Should I include benefits as income?+
Yes. Benefits provided by an employer have genuine monetary value. Employer-paid health insurance, pension contributions above the minimum, gym memberships, travel cards, and similar perks are real compensation you would otherwise have to pay for yourself. A job that pays $75,000 with $8,000 in benefits has a higher package value than a $80,000 job with no benefits. Using the benefits field to capture this value is the only way to make a complete comparison.
Why does commute cost matter in a pay comparison?+
Commuting costs money you must spend to be able to do the job. A daily return commute costing $20 across 220 working days is $4,400 per year of after-tax expenditure. Since you pay commuting costs from net income, the pre-tax equivalent is even higher depending on your marginal tax rate. A role that is a short walk from home is genuinely more valuable than an identical role requiring a costly commute. This calculator deducts the annual commute cost from the total package to make that explicit.
How is paid leave treated differently from unpaid leave?+
Paid leave reduces productive hours without reducing pay, which raises your true hourly rate. Unpaid leave reduces both pay and hours, which keeps the rate roughly the same. This calculator uses paid leave days to reduce productive hours while keeping annual income fixed. If a role has unpaid leave or unpaid gaps, reduce the weeks per year input rather than the paid leave days field. For contract roles, gaps between contracts should be reflected in a lower weeks per year figure.
Is this calculator gross or net income?+
All income figures are gross, meaning before income tax and social contributions. Comparing on a gross basis is usually sufficient when all offers are in the same country and tax system, since the effective tax rate will be similar. When comparing offers across countries with different tax systems, use the Salary After Tax Global calculator to estimate net income for each country first, then enter the net annual figures here as the income amount for a net comparison.