Job offers & pay · 2 min
The folk wisdom says switchers out-earn stayers, and the folk wisdom is usually right — but by how much, at your numbers, is a calculation, not a vibe. This instrument compounds both paths over a decade: the loyalty raise every year against the hop bump every few, with the between-jobs gap months honestly charged to the hopper.
The realistic figure, not the promised one.
Market moves for switchers commonly land 10–25%.
Unpaid time between roles — the hop's honest transaction cost.
Everything is calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing you enter is sent or stored, and no account is needed.
The market pays the mover.
+$328,503
the hop path's cumulative lead over 10 years
| Stay & raise | Hop the market | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary at the horizon | — | — |
| Cumulative earnings | — | — |
| Gap months paid | — | — |
| The decade's difference | — | — |
| If each hop pays | Cumulative lead | Final salary gap |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
Equity vesting is the stayer's hidden weapon: unvested grants forfeited at each hop can erase the bump entirely. Add the forfeited paper to the gap months before believing the lead.
Reputation compounds differently: three two-year stints read fine; six one-year stints read like a pattern. The bump shrinks when the CV starts explaining itself.
The stay path has its own upside this model can't see — the internal promotion that doubles the raise, the trust that becomes a title. Hop math prices the market; it can't price the room.
Everything below is calculated from your inputs. Nothing is fetched, nothing is looked up.
stay: salary_t = salary × (1+raise)^t
hop: salary jumps ×(1+bump) every k years, raises between
each hop charges (gap/12) of that year's salary
lead = Σ hop_earnings − Σ stay_earnings
The gauge reads the hop path's cumulative earnings as a share of the stay path's, parity at 100%. Both paths use net salary and identical raise behaviour between hops, so the only differences priced are the bumps and the gaps — the two terms the decision actually turns on.
Limitations. Equity, pensions, bonuses and seniority premiums are outside; so is the risk that a hop lands badly. The model prices the salary mechanics of the folk wisdom, nothing softer.