Is My Promotion Worth It? Break-Even Calculator
Calculate if a promotion is actually worth the extra hours. Find your break-even salary and see if your effective hourly rate goes up or down.
When to use this tool:
- Evaluate a promotion offer
- Negotiate raise amounts
- Assess career progression value
How it's Calculated
- Calculates hourly rate before and after adjusting for total hours and new costs.
- Break-even Salary = The salary required to maintain your previous hourly rate with the new workload.
Key Assumptions
- Base week is 40 hours unless adjusted by extra hours.
- Mental load hours account for time spent thinking about work outside of direct hours.
Actionable Insights
- A 10% raise with a 15% increase in total time spent (including mental load) is effectively a pay cut per hour.
- The 'Break-even' salary is often much higher than people expect when responsibilities scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
It's the time you spend stressed about work, answering emails on weekends, or 'off-the-clock' thinking that a promotion often demands.
It's the minimum salary you should accept to ensure your hourly rate doesn't drop due to the increased workload.
Consider how much of your evening or weekend is spent 'monitoring' work or managing people effectively.
It uses gross salary. Remember that moving to a higher tax bracket might further reduce your real take-home pay.
Only if the long-term career growth or resume benefit outweighs the immediate loss of time and hourly value.
If the promotion requires more days in office or a different location, enter the annual cost change in the dedicated field.
Short Answer: Is that promotion actually worth it?
Not always. A 10% salary raise with a 20% increase in hours and stress is mathematically a pay cut on a per-hour basis. This calculator reveals whether the new title comes with a real raise or just more unpaid work.
Break-Even Analysis
If the promoted salary is below this break-even number, your effective hourly rate actually drops. You are being paid less per hour of your life than before the promotion.
Common Mistakes
- Ignoring mental load: Management roles come with evening emails, weekend anxiety, and decision fatigue. This is real, uncompensated time.
- Assuming linear career ROI: A promotion that burns you out in 18 months may be worse for your career than staying and performing well for 3 years.
- Not negotiating: Once you know the break-even salary, you have a mathematical argument for asking for more.
Related Tools
- Job Offer Comparison: Compare total compensation across multiple offers.
- PTO Value Calculator: Factor in vacation days when evaluating your real compensation.