Salary comparison calculator
Comparing job offers on gross salary is how people leave money on the table. The honest comparison is take-home plus pension money: because the difference between a 3% and a 10% employer contribution is worth thousands a year and never appears on a payslip. This tool scores both offers on the total that actually accrues to you.
Offer A
Offer B
Counting take-home AND pension money
Offer B wins by £5,256.00 a year
Monthly take-home: A £2,573.30 vs B £2,801.30. Annual pension money: A £3,200.00 vs B £5,720.00.
| Per year | Offer A | Offer B |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £40,000.00 | £44,000.00 |
| Take-home | £30,879.60 | £33,615.60 |
| Pension (yours + employer's) | £3,200.00 | £5,720.00 |
| Total value to you | £34,079.60 | £39,335.60 |
| Kept per gross £1 | 85.2% | 89.4% |
A higher salary with a 3% pension often loses to a slightly lower one with 8-10%, the employer contribution is invisible on a payslip but real money. Holiday days, bonus and hybrid policy aren't in the table; price them before deciding.
Why the lower salary sometimes wins
Every extra pound of salary is taxed at your marginal rate, 28% to 62% of it never reaches you, while every pound of employer pension arrives whole. So £2,000 more employer pension routinely beats £3,000 more salary, and the gap widens for higher-rate taxpayers and anyone near the £100k taper. Public-sector offers illustrate it best: a civil-service salary with a 20%+ employer contribution can out-value a private offer many thousands higher.
What the table can't price
Holiday days (each one ≈ 0.4% of salary), bonus schemes and their realism, private medical (a taxed benefit, check the tax code impact), commute cost and time, and how pay reviews actually behave. Put rough numbers on those, add them to the totals above, and the decision usually makes itself.
2026/27 rates, checked 2026-08-28. Method on the about page.