Two offers on the table. One actually puts more in your pocket.
Total comp on paper isn't take-home. Add equity, normalize for cost of living, and the answer often flips.
Why we adjust by cost of living
$115K in San Francisco isn't $115K in Austin. Rent, groceries, taxes, and everything else cost more in higher-COL cities — so the same paycheck buys less life.
We translate both offers into the same purchasing-power yardstick (the lower-COL city, as the baseline) so you're comparing actual lifestyle, not raw numbers. If both offers are in the same city, no adjustment is needed and we skip it.
Offer A · Austin, TX
$117,500
first-year total comp
$112,500 steady-state
$112,500 COL-adjusted
Offer B · San Francisco, CA
$152,250
first-year total comp
$152,250 steady-state
$85,104 COL-adjusted
Offer A wins by $27,396 a year in real purchasing power.
Adjusted to the lower-COL city as the baseline. Doesn't include taxes, equity risk, career trajectory, or whether you actually want to live there. Those count too — that's the conversation.