True Cost of a Job Offer
Compare a job offer against your current job for what it's ACTUALLY worth — after commute time, city cost-of-living, taxes, realistic ESOP value and one-off transition costs. Headline CTC lies.
Your Job Today
City
Annual CTC (INR)
One-way commute
35 min
WFH days / week
2 / 5
The Offer On The Table
City
Fixed CTC (INR)
One-way commute
50 min
WFH days / week
0 / 5
One-off & Equity Components
Joining bonus (INR)
Relocation cost (₹)
Relocation reimbursement (₹)
ESOP grant total (INR)
Vesting period (years)
Company stage
Unpaid transition gap (months)
Headline CTC says +₹15.00 L (+60%). True effective value in 🇮🇳 Pune’s lifestyle:
+₹1.61 L / year
Current Job
Baseline
🇮🇳
Pune
Gross CTC
₹25.00 L
− Income tax (est.)
-₹4.34 L
− Commute (time + money)
161 hr/yr
-₹2.52 L
= Effective value
₹18.14 L
New Offer
PPP-normalised to Pune
🇮🇳
Bengaluru
Gross CTC (local)
₹40.00 L
PPP-adj to Pune
×0.90
₹35.81 L
− Income tax (est.)
-₹9.02 L
− Commute (time + money)
383 hr/yr
-₹9.58 L
+ Joining bonus (amortised /3)
₹1.00 L
+ ESOPs (risk-adj /yr)
0% of vested grant
₹0
− Relocation (amortised /3)
-₹33,333
− Transition gap (amortised /3)
₹0
= Effective value (PPP)
₹19.75 L
What’s Hidden Behind the Headline
🚗
Commute opportunity cost
The new role will cost you ₹7.07 L more per year in commute — 222 extra hours valued at your hourly rate.
🌆
PPP gap: Pune vs Bengaluru
Bengaluru is 12% pricier than Pune. The offer's headline ₹40.00 L buys only ₹35.81 L of Pune lifestyle.
📈
ESOP reality check
No ESOPs in this offer. If the company offers any, plug them in to see the risk-adjusted value.
💸
Tax & one-offs
Tax wipes ₹9.02 L of the gross. One-off net: joining ₹3.00 L – relocation ₹1.00 L – 0 months gap. Spread over 3 yrs = +₹66,667 / yr.
True Cost of a Job Offer — Why CTC Lies
Every job-offer comparison on the internet stops at CTC vs CTC. None of them tell you that the ₹40 LPA Bangalore offer is barely a raise on your ₹25 LPA Pune job — once you price in two extra hours of daily commute, a higher cost of living, ESOPs from a Series A startup that will probably never IPO, and a ₹1.5 L relocation. The True Cost of a Job Offer analyser decomposes any offer into the seven hidden costs that determine whether you’re actually getting richer — or just busier.
The Seven Hidden Costs
1
Commute time at your hourly rate
A 1-hour daily commute at ₹25 LPA = ₹1.4 L/year of unbilled time. Add fuel and you lose ~2% of CTC.
2
City cost-of-living delta
A ₹50 K rent jump in Bengaluru eats ₹6 L of post-tax income. Headline currency hides it.
3
Tax regime impact
A move from a low-tax city or jurisdiction adds 5–15% effective tax that the headline number ignores.
4
Realistic ESOP value
A "₹40 L grant" at Series A, after 2 dilution rounds and a 10% exit probability, is worth ₹2.7 L — not ₹40 L.
5
Joining bonus amortised
Spread the one-time bonus over your expected tenure. A ₹3 L bonus over 3 years is ₹1 L/year.
6
Relocation net of reimbursement
Movers, deposits, broker fees: ₹1–3 L net is normal, even with employer support.
7
Unpaid transition gap
Each unpaid month between jobs costs you a full month of your current salary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the headline number sometimes go negative on a "bigger" offer?
Because CTC is a lossy measurement of compensation. A ₹40 L Bangalore offer with a 90-minute commute, a Series A ESOP that won't materialise, and a ₹2 L relocation can be worth less than a ₹25 L Pune job with WFH. The tool exposes that arithmetic.
How is ESOP value calculated?
We take the grant value, multiply by the fraction that vests inside a 3-year horizon (with a 1-year cliff), apply an 18% dilution penalty per expected funding round, and weight by the company-stage exit probability (5% for Seed, 95% for Listed). This is a textbook risk-adjusted expected value, applied to your specific grant.
Why a 3-year planning horizon?
Median tenure for Indian salaried professionals at a new employer is 2.5–3 years. Amortising one-off costs (joining bonus, relocation) and ESOPs over this horizon gives a fair per-year comparison.
How accurate is the tax number?
Indian-city tax uses the FY 2024-25 New Regime slabs with surcharge and 4% cess — accurate to within a few percent for a salaried filer with the standard deduction. Foreign-city tax uses a flat 22–36% effective rate as a rough proxy; for precision, compute the net-of-tax abroad with a local calculator and enter that as the CTC.
Does it handle two foreign cities?
Yes. The final number is always normalised to the CURRENT city's purchasing power, so any city-to-city move works. If both cities are foreign, the engine just rebases through INR internally.
What if my new offer is fully remote?
Set the new offer's commute to 0 minutes and WFH days to 5. The tool will correctly show that the commute saving is one of the largest hidden gains.