Enter both salaries and what actually differs — commute, match, hours — and see the real monthly hit, not the sticker shock.
The cut, honestly measured
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| Sticker cut | — |
| Effective cut after differences | — |
| Hourly rate: now vs new | — |
| — |
Take-home estimate uses a flat ~72% of gross — real withholding varies with your bracket, state, and deductions. Directional math for a decision, not a payroll preview.
The honest pay-cut math
effective cut = sticker cut + commute change + match change
monthly hit ≈ effective cut × ~72% ÷ 12
Two corrections make sticker shock honest. Taxes: a cut comes off your top bracket, so take-home falls by less than the gross number. Circumstances: the things that made the lower offer attractive — the shorter drive, the better match, the 42-hour week — are worth actual dollars, and they belong in the same equation as the salary.
A worked example
$100k to $88k looks like a $12,000 cut. But the new job kills a $4,000/yr commute, so the effective gap is $8,000 — about $480 a month in take-home. And the hours tell the sharper story: $100k at 50 hours is $38.50/hr; $88k at 42 is $40.30. The "pay cut" is a raise per hour of life spent.
Deciding like it's an investment
Run the full offer comparison with benefits and bonus included, check the long-game effect with the job hopping calculator(titles and trajectories compound; one year's salary doesn't), and if the cut is the price of escaping something unsustainable, set your floor with the runway calculator logic — know the number the budget can't go below, and negotiate everything above it.
Frequently asked questions
How much of a pay cut can I afford?
The mechanical answer: your take-home minus your actual monthly commitments is the room you have. The useful answer: a pay cut hits take-home by roughly 70–75% of its sticker amount (taxes shrink with income), so a $10,000 cut usually means ~$600/month less in the account — this calculator does your version of that math.
Is a pay cut ever worth it?
Regularly. The clean cases: a shorter commute (price it — often worth thousands), remote work, sane hours, a title or industry jump that reprices your next decade, or escaping a job that's costing your health. The trap cases: vague promises of future raises, 'great culture' with no specifics, and equity in place of salary without doing the equity math.
How do I compare jobs when one pays less but costs less to have?
Put a dollar figure on the differences: commute miles and hours, benefits premiums, retirement match, bonus reality. A $90k job 10 minutes away with a 6% match regularly beats a $100k job an hour away with 3% — the calculator's 'effective' line is exactly this comparison.
Should I take a pay cut to escape a bad job?
A bad-enough job is a cost you're already paying in non-dollar currency. The practical guard: know your monthly floor (the number below which the budget genuinely breaks), keep the cut above it, and treat the move like the investment it is — priced, not panicked.