A BIGGER PAYCHECK. THE FULL PICTURE.
A bigger paycheck can come with bigger costs. Compare salaries, commute expenses, and time before you decide.
01 / THE CALCULATOR
Compare your current fully remote role with a new hybrid or office-based offer. Adjust the assumptions to match your life.
READ YOUR RESULTS
Cash gain is your approximate annual change in spendable pay after office-day costs. Time-adjusted gain subtracts a personal value you assign to commuting hours; it isn't money deducted from your paycheck. Compare health insurance, bonuses, growth prospects, flexibility, and relocation separately.
02 / HOW WE CALCULATE
First we estimate the extra cash spent because of the office schedule: fuel, parking and tolls, vehicle wear, incremental meals, minus any home utility expense you avoid on office days.
The change in annual cash is the salary increase after your estimated marginal tax rate, less those additional expenses.
We calculate annual commuting hours separately. You choose how much an hour of your personal time is worth. That value is not a bank expense and should not be confused with take-home pay.
We then estimate how large a gross salary offer would offset both the incremental expense and your chosen time value.
A remote role pays $95,000; an office offer pays $110,000. The nominal raise is $15,000. But at three office days per week, travel and meals eat into the raise. Additional commute time matters too — depending on how you value it.
Use your own inputs above rather than relying on averages. We make no assumption that office work is always worse, and do not score career development, job security, team culture or employer benefits.
With the default example, 3 office days per week over 48 weeks means 144 round trips. A 26-mile round trip at 28 MPG and $3.60 per gallon adds about $481 in gas and $487 in car wear per year. Parking/tolls add $1,296, extra meals add $1,008, and $288 in avoided home costs is subtracted. The estimated net cash cost of commuting is $2,984 per year.
On a $15,000 gross raise, an illustrative 24% marginal tax rate leaves $11,400 before commuting costs. After the $2,984 estimated net expense, the annual cash gain is about $8,416 (roughly $701 per month). The 70-minute round trip also takes 168 hours per year. At an optional $25 per hour for personal time, the time-adjusted gain is about $4,216. Time value is not a paycheck deduction.
03 / QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK
Yes, if you drive. Fuel is only part of operating a car. Include a per-mile estimate for extra wear, repairs, tires and depreciation caused by the commute. Don't enter an all-in mileage rate and also count fuel — that would double-count the gas cost.
No. It applies your estimated marginal tax rate only to the salary difference. This gives a quick comparison, not a payroll calculation. State and local taxes, payroll limits, insurance, and retirement savings can change the answer.
Select “Public transit” under commute type and enter your round-trip fare. Fuel and vehicle wear no longer apply; commute time and any extra meals or parking still count.
The calculation is performed entirely in your browser. By default your inputs aren't sent to us. If you choose “Share scenario,” your input values are included in the link fragment, so don't share that URL if the numbers are sensitive.
Not necessarily. In-person work can provide training, career progression, team access or more satisfying work. This tool isolates the money-and-time trade-off so you can assess the less measurable factors separately.
Start from 52 and subtract weeks when you will not commute — such as vacation and other time away from the office. If your office has a planned seasonal shutdown, subtract those weeks too.
There is no universal threshold. In the example above, about $3,926 of extra gross annual pay offsets the estimated $2,984 commute cash cost at a 24% marginal tax rate. Including 168 commute hours valued at $25 per hour raises the illustrative break-even increase to about $9,453. These are scenario estimates, not tax or payroll calculations.
DECIDE WITH BETTER NUMBERS