Calculate your counter-offer range, quantify benefits, and generate a negotiation script — data-driven.
Market ranges should be verified with current data from BLS, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, or Payscale. PTO value estimated at $450/day. Remote savings estimated at $60/day. Actual values vary.
Salary conversations are anchored: the first number on the table pulls every later number toward it, so the offer you receive acts as the anchor. This tool treats that offer as the baseline and builds acounter-offer ladder 5–15% above it — a floor of +5%, a recommended midpoint around +10% (clamped to the market midpoint), and a ceiling of +15% — while never dipping below market reality. It also converts benefits into hard dollars so you can trade levers: PTO at ~$450/day, a 401(k) match as a percentage of salary, remote days at ~$60/day of commuting savings, plus any signing bonus. The total package value and a market-range comparison (your offer vs. the midpoint) then feed a ready-to-send negotiation script in collaborative, confident, or data-driven tone.
Your offer anchors the negotiation; the ladder climbs +5% to +15% and lands inside the market range you supplied, so the ask stays defensible.
Elena receives a $130,000 offer for a Senior Data Engineer role. Glassdoor and BLS put the market range at $120,000–$165,000, so the midpoint is $142,500 and the offer sits about 8.8% below it.
Calculate your counter-offer range, quantify benefits value, generate a data-driven negotiation script. Market rate comparison. Free, no signup.
This calculator turns negotiation from anxiety into arithmetic. Enter the offered salary and your researched market rate, and it computes a defensible counter-offer range anchored to market data, quantifies the full value of the benefits package so you negotiate total compensation rather than base alone, and generates a negotiation script you can actually say — opening line, justification grounded in your numbers, and responses to the standard pushback. The script adapts to scenario: new offer, counter on a raise, or competing-offer leverage.
Candidates who got an offer and do not know whether to negotiate or what number to say. People who historically accept first offers and leave money on the table every time. Underpaid employees preparing an annual-review case with evidence rather than feelings. Career changers unsure what their skills transfer to in a new market. Anyone who knows they should negotiate but freezes when the recruiter asks so is that number workable for you.
(1) Enter the offered base, your target salary, and your researched market range for the role and location. (2) Add benefits details — bonus, equity, PTO, premiums, match — to see total compensation and where the gaps are. (3) The calculator sets a counter range anchored between the offer and market ceiling, with rationale for each endpoint. (4) Generate the script: opening anchor, two supporting justifications, a fallback position, and replies to the three most common counters — budget constraints, we will revisit in six months, and take it or leave it pressure.
Working numbers, not folklore: counter 10–20% above the offer when you have market data or competing leverage, and toward the lower end when the offer already sits at market or the employer is a nonprofit or public agency with fixed bands. Anchor above your actual target — if you want $125,000 and the offer is $110,000, counter $128,000–$132,000 so the landing zone covers your number. Never counter above roughly 25% unless you hold a genuinely superior competing offer, because outsized counters read as misreading the role. Negotiate total compensation, not just base: if the band is frozen, sign-on bonus, extra equity, an earlier review date, extra PTO, or a remote arrangement all carry value and are cheaper for the company to grant. Two rules hold across almost every scenario: he who names a number first sets the anchor, so when asked for expectations, respond with your researched range with the target at its bottom; and always ask for time — a day minimum — before responding to any offer, because same-day acceptance forfeits everything.
Enter the initial offer and your research (market rate, competing offers, experience premium). The tool calculates a counter-offer range: floor (10-15% above initial offer), target (market median + experience premium), and ceiling (15-20% above target). It also quantifies non-salary benefits (equity, signing bonus, extra PTO) to negotiate if base salary is inflexible.
Yes. Based on your offer details and counter-offer range, it generates a data-driven script with specific talking points: market data references, your value proposition, and professional language for asking for more. The script includes responses to common pushback like "that's above our budget" or "we can't go higher on base."
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