How to compare two job offers with different salaries and cities (the real math)
TL;DR: Compare offers on cost-of-living-adjusted purchasing power, not headline base salary — a ₹22L offer in a 20%-more-expensive city can be worth less, in real terms, than an ₹18L offer somewhere cheaper. Add commute cost, benefits, and annualized equity value on top before calling a winner.
Why comparing headline salaries is misleading
₹100 in one city doesn't buy the same as ₹100 in another. Two offers that look meaningfully different on the salary line can be nearly identical — or even reversed — once adjusted for what that money actually buys in each specific location.
What a fair comparison actually needs to include
- Base salary + bonus — use realistic expected bonus, not the best-case target figure
- Equity, annualized — a large one-time grant value means little without knowing the vesting period; spread it across the vest years to get a fair annual figure, and treat it as an estimate, not a guarantee
- Cost-of-living adjustment — scale each offer's compensation by a real cost-of-living index for its city, not a guess
- Commute cost — a longer or more expensive commute is a real, recurring cost that eats into take-home value
- Benefits — healthcare, perks, and other employer-provided value that offsets what you'd otherwise pay for yourself
The "too close to call" case is common, and okay
When two offers land within a few percent of each other after all these adjustments, that's a genuine tie on the financial dimension — the honest answer is to let role, growth trajectory, and team decide it, not to force a false precision onto compensation numbers that are this close.
Run your own two offers through the full comparison
Our Job Offer Decision Report computes exactly this — base, bonus, annualized equity, benefits, commute, and a cost-of-living adjustment — and gives a direct verdict on which offer actually wins in real terms, or whether it's genuinely too close to call.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compare two job offers in different cities?
Adjust both offers' total compensation by a real cost-of-living index for each city before comparing — a higher headline salary in a much more expensive city can be worth less in real purchasing power than a lower salary somewhere cheaper.
Should I count equity the same as salary when comparing offers?
No — equity value is an estimate tied to the company's future performance, not a guarantee like salary. A fair comparison annualizes the equity grant over its vesting period and treats it as a real but less certain component of total compensation.
What if two job offers are financially very close?
If the gap after cost-of-living and equity adjustment is small (a few percent), that's a genuine near-tie — it's reasonable to let non-financial factors like role scope, growth trajectory, and team decide rather than forcing precision onto numbers that are this close.