Reading an offer honestly
The headline number on an offer is frequently the least useful figure in it.
The four-year trick
An offer quoting a total that adds a full four-year equity grant to one year of salary is describing something that does not exist. Divide the grant across its vesting period and you have a figure comparable with another offer.
This is not always deliberate, and it is always worth undoing before comparing anything.
Equity is a valuation, not money
For a public company it is a share price that will be different when the shares vest. For a private one there is no market price at all — the number in the letter is an internal valuation, and outcomes range from life-changing to nothing.
That does not make equity bad. It makes it a different kind of thing from salary, which is why it belongs itemised rather than blended into one figure.
Look at the guaranteed line
Base plus pension is what arrives regardless of performance, company results, or a future valuation. On some offers that is most of the package; on others barely half.
Two offers with the same headline can differ enormously here, and it is the most useful comparison to make before deciding which you would rather hold in a bad year.
The highest offer is often not the most certain
An equity-weighted offer can have the larger headline and much less guaranteed money. Which you prefer depends on your circumstances, how long you expect to stay, and how much risk you can absorb.
Arithmetic cannot make that call. It can show you the two numbers separately so you make it deliberately.
A rise below inflation is a pay cut
It rarely feels like one — the number went up and the letter was positive. A 3% rise in a year of 5% inflation leaves you about 1.9% worse off.
Percentage rises also compound from wherever you already are, which is why a starting salary follows people for a decade and why the largest single increase most people get comes from changing employer.
Comparing a salary with a contract rate
A salary includes paid leave, sick pay, employer pension contribution, equipment and the absence of unbilled time. A contract rate includes none of those.
Converting one to the other on hours alone will always flatter the contract. Working back from what you need to clear, through costs and realistic billable hours, is the more honest direction.
Why we publish no take-home figure
Take-home pay depends on jurisdiction, tax year, filing status, pension arrangements, student loan plans and local levies. A figure wrong by a little is still one people plan around.
Publishing it credibly needs maintained authoritative data for every jurisdiction and year you appear to cover. Where that does not exist, gross figures with the assumptions stated are the honest offering.