Your Pay Is More Than Your Paycheck

The story: Marcus weighs two offers

Marcus compares two job offer letters side by side, one with a higher salary and one with richer benefits.

1. Narrator: Marcus has two job offers. Offer A pays more in salary. Offer B pays a little less.
2. Marcus: Easy choice. Offer A has the bigger number.
3. Narrator: Then Marcus reads the benefits. Offer B adds a retirement match and pays most of the family’s health coverage.
4. Marcus: With Offer A, we’d pay the whole health premium ourselves. That’s thousands a year.
5. Narrator: Added up, Offer B is worth more, even with the smaller salary.
6. Narrator: Compare the whole package, not just the paycheck.

What you’ll learn

1. What total pay includes

   Total pay, or total compensation, is salary and bonus plus benefits: a retirement match, the share of health coverage your job pays, money put in your HSA, life and disability insurance, paid leave and any stock plan.

2. When you can change benefits

   Most people pick benefits once a year during open enrollment. A big life event, like a birth, a marriage or losing other coverage, opens a short window to make changes. Your plan’s summary says how long that window is.

3. Vesting: when it becomes yours

   Some benefits, like a retirement match or company stock, vest over time. If you leave before they vest, you may lose part or all of them. Many people check vesting dates before they change jobs.

4. Compare offers on total pay

   A lower salary can still be the better offer when the benefits are richer. Add salary, bonus and the dollar value of each benefit for every offer, then compare the totals.

   Example: Offer A pays $70,000. Offer B pays $66,000 plus a $2,640 match and $4,800 toward health coverage. Offer B is worth about $73,440.

Key words

total compensation

salary plus the value of all your benefits

Also called: total pay

open enrollment

the yearly window to pick or change work benefits

qualifying life event

a big change, like a birth or marriage, that lets you change benefits outside open enrollment

vesting

when money or stock your job gave you becomes fully yours

Common questions

Where do I find what my benefits are worth?

Your benefits guide and your paystub show what your job pays for many benefits. Some employers also send a yearly total pay statement.

Is a pension part of total pay?

Yes. A pension is pay you earn now and receive later, and it often vests after a set number of years.

Remember this

Compare the whole package, not just the paycheck.

Try it: Price your whole package

1. Find your latest paystub and your benefits guide.
2. List what your job pays for beyond salary: match, health coverage, insurance, HSA money and paid leave.
3. Note any vesting dates.
4. Add it up to get a rough total pay number.

No account needed: your paystub, your benefits guide and a sheet of paper.

Live facts

Numbers that change over time, with when they were last checked and where they come from.

• How long the life-event window is for Marketplace plans

  Source: HealthCare.gov(opens in a new tab)

• How vesting works in retirement plans

  Source: IRS.gov(opens in a new tab)