Benefits tradeoff calculator

Compare benefit package tradeoffs.

PTO value:$1000
Remote work value:$9000
Total value:$25000
Recommendation:Balanced

One remote day a week is priced here at exactly fifteen days of leave

The tool values an extra leave day at 200 and a weekly remote day at 3,000. Divide one by the other and a single day of working from home each week is worth fifteen days of annual leave. That ratio is unit-free — it holds whatever currency you are in — and it is usually the number that decides the comparison.

How it works

  • Converts extra leave days and weekly remote days into the same units as a salary difference.
  • Adds the three into one figure so a lower-paying offer can be compared with a higher-paying one.
  • Exposes how much of the total is coming from each component rather than from pay.
leave value  = extra leave days × 200
remote value = remote days per week × 3,000
total = salary difference + leave value + remote value

Worked example

An offer paying 15,000 more, with 5 extra leave days and 3 remote days a week.

  1. leave = 5 × 200 = 1,000
  2. remote = 3 × 3,000 = 9,000
  3. total = 15,000 + 1,000 + 9,000 = 25,000
  4. remote contributes 36% of the total; extra leave contributes 4%
  5. one weekly remote day = 3,000 ÷ 200 = 15 leave days

The five extra leave days that felt like a win are 4% of the package. The three remote days nobody negotiated over are more than a third of it.

Reading the result

  • The remote figure is defensible as a commuting estimate: one remote day a week removes roughly 46 return journeys a year once holidays are taken out. Price your own commute in fares, fuel and time and you can replace 3,000 with a number that is actually yours.
  • The two constants are placeholders, and the ratio between them matters more than either. If your daily pay is far above 200, leave is undervalued here; if you walk to work, remote is overvalued. Adjust both before trusting the total.
  • Some things this cannot price are the ones that decide the job: whether the work is interesting, whether you trust the manager, whether the employer will still exist in three years. A number that ignores those is a tiebreaker, not a decision.
  • Leave entitlements and remote-work rights differ by country and by contract, and statutory minimums vary widely across Europe. Check what your own contract and national law actually guarantee before treating extra days as a concession.

Common questions

Is a remote day really worth fifteen leave days?
Under this tool's constants, yes, and the logic is not silly: one remote day a week saves around 46 commutes a year, while five leave days are five days. But the answer depends entirely on your commute. Someone with a ten-minute walk should lower the remote value sharply.
Why does extra leave barely move the total?
Because 200 a day is a low valuation next to a salary difference in the thousands. Five days at 200 is 1,000, which cannot compete with a 15,000 pay gap. Raise the daily figure to your actual daily rate and leave starts to matter far more.