Compare staying at current job versus accepting a new offer over a multi-year horizon

The Stay-vs-Leave Math That Most People Skip

A 5% raise at your current job is a specific dollar figure each year. A 20% salary jump to a new job is a different figure. Most people compare the immediate gap (leave wins 10-20k immediately) without extending the math over the full career horizon. Over 10 years, both paths compound — current with annual raises, new with different annual raises — and the answer can reverse. A high-raise-trajectory current job may beat a short-term-uplift new job if you hold for long enough.

How Annual Raises Compound

A 80,000 salary with 3% annual raises becomes 107,500 after 10 years. The same starting salary with 6% annual raises reaches 143,300. Both paths compound, but the higher-raise path produces disproportionately more lifetime earnings. The stay-vs-leave calculator applies annual raises to both scenarios and sums cumulative earnings across the horizon, which is what actually matters for total career compensation.

Realistic Raise Rates by Company Type

Established corporations: 2-4% annual base raise, sometimes promotions of 8-15%. Fast-growth tech companies: 5-10% annual, heavy equity component. Consulting and professional services: 5-10% annual with rank progression. Small businesses: 0-3% annual, variable. Public sector: 1-3% inflation-linked. Startups: 0-5% base but potential large equity upside. Use your company's actual historical pattern or your market's benchmark rather than hoping for above-average raises.

What the Calculator Does Not Capture

Signing bonus — typically 5,000-50,000 at the new job, ignored in multi-year earnings comparison. Unvested equity at current job that you forfeit by leaving. Benefits differences (health insurance, pension matching, paid leave) that can equal 15-30% of base salary. Career trajectory — a job change that opens faster promotion paths produces higher long-term compounding that steady raises do not. Risk — new job might not last, old job might restructure. This tool shows base salary math only; factor the rest into your decision separately.

Worked Example

Current salary 85,000 with 3% annual raises. Job offer 100,000 with 4% annual raises. Horizon: 10 years. Stay total: sum of 85,000 × 1.03^y for y = 0 to 9 = roughly 976,000. Leave total: sum of 100,000 × 1.04^y for y = 0 to 9 = roughly 1,201,000. Gap: 225,000 in favour of leaving. Immediate lift: 15,000 or 17.6%. The new job wins decisively over a 10-year horizon because both the immediate lift and higher raise trajectory compound.

When Staying Wins Despite Lower Immediate Offer

Counter example: current 85,000 with 6% annual raises (strong promotion pipeline). Offer 92,000 with 3% annual raises. Stay total over 10 years: roughly 1,120,000. Leave total: roughly 1,055,000. Staying wins by 65,000 despite the 7,000 immediate offer. Run your realistic raise rate at each option — using optimistic numbers for the leave scenario is the most common bias. The honest answer often favours staying when you are already on a strong raise trajectory and the new offer does not materially change that.

The Non-Financial Factors That Matter

Salary math produces a number. Real career decisions include stress, commute time, learning opportunities, stability, team quality, and work-life fit. A 10% higher salary at a job you will hate for 3 years is typically worse than a lower salary at a job you can grow in for 10. The calculator handles the financial layer so you can weigh it against the non-financial layers honestly. A 5-year decision based purely on base salary tends to under-weight career optionality and growth ceilings, which often matter more than immediate pay over a full career.