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Is this job offer good?

Where your offer falls among local workers, and what it pays after the commute

Check an offer Your scenario

Offer A
Offer B (optional)

How it works

5pay points per city
393metros
42trades

Built on our data. Uses the same local pay ladders that power every PayByTrade city page: BLS 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile wages for 42 trades in 393 metros. Most offer calculators only do the math; this one tells you how the offer stacks up against people already doing the work where you'd live.

Pick your trade and city, then enter the offer. We place the base hourly rate on the local pay ladder the BLS publishes for that trade and metro (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles) and estimate where it falls between those points.

For the yearly figure we add overtime at the rate you enter, then subtract driving costs. The effective hourly divides take-home-before-tax pay minus driving costs by all the hours you give the job, including the commute.

Worked example

An electrician in Sacramento, where PayByTrade's data shows a $74,830 median and a middle half between $52,720 and $98,130, has two offers:

  1. Offer A: $34/hr, 25-minute drive each way, 30 miles a day. That's about the 45th percentile locally, $68,000 a year over 50 weeks, minus $5,250 in driving = $28.42 per hour of your time.
  2. Offer B: $38/hr, 55-minute drive each way, 70 miles a day. About the 55th percentile, $76,000 a year, minus $12,250 in driving = $25.93 per hour of your time.

Offer B leaves $1,000 more a year, but Offer A pays more for every hour you give the job once the extra hour of driving a day is counted.

Tips & gotchas

  • Use the base rate for the local comparison. Overtime, per diem and bonuses aren't in the BLS figures.
  • Ask whether overtime is guaranteed. If it isn't, compare the offers at 0 overtime first.
  • $0.70 a mile is a rough all-in driving cost (fuel, wear, insurance). Change it to your own number.
  • Union offers can include health and pension contributions on top of the hourly rate; compare those separately.

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FAQ

Where does the local pay ladder come from?

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for the trade and metro you pick. Between the published percentiles we estimate the position in a straight line.

Does this include taxes?

No. All pay figures are before tax, like a job offer.

Why does the effective hourly look low?

It counts your commute as time you give the job. A long drive can erase a pay raise.

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