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Worker-First Salary Intelligence

Stop leaving $20,000+ on the table1

Free compensation analysis that shows you exactly where you stand, what to ask for, and the exact words to say.

Decode Your Offer — Free
⚖️ Not legal or financial advice 🤖 AI output — verify before use 📊 BLS data — annual, W-2 only 🎯 Results not guaranteed 🔍 U.S. private sector only 🔒 No data stored
18.8%
Avg. Gain When Negotiated
66%
Success Rate When Asked
55%
Never Even Try
How It Works

Three steps to knowing your worth

1

Enter Your Offer

Input your base salary, bonus, equity, benefits, and location. Even partial info works — we'll calculate what we can and flag what's missing.

2

See Where You Stand

Instantly see your market percentile against live federal wage data for your specific job title — not generic industry averages or crowdsourced guesses.

3

Get Your Playbook

Personalized negotiation scripts tailored to your situation — what to say, when to say it, and exactly how to respond to pushback.

Powered by
🏛️ BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics · CareerOneStop / U.S. Dept of Labor · Occupational Outlook Handbook · Updated annually by federal survey
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What You Get

Everything a $500 career coach gives you. Free.

🏛️

Live Federal Wage Data

Benchmarks pulled in real time from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS program via CareerOneStop — the same data the federal government uses. Not crowdsourced. Not self-reported. Federal survey data covering 830+ occupations.

📈

Total Comp Calculator

See the real dollar value of your full offer — base, bonus, equity, 401k match, PTO, health premiums, and remote stipends combined into one honest number.

🎯

Market Percentile

Know exactly where your offer lands — P25, P50, P75, P90 — for your specific job title, experience level, and location. Sourced from BLS OES May 2024, not guesswork.

📊

Negotiation Confidence Score

See your leverage based on competing offers, urgency, experience, and your state's pay transparency laws — with a plain-English explanation of how much room you have to push.

💬

Word-for-Word Scripts

AI-generated negotiation scripts tailored to your specific offer and situation. Copy-paste responses for every scenario: "That's our final offer," "We don't negotiate," salary history questions, and more.

⚖️

Offer Comparison

Weighing two offers? See them side-by-side with total comp, cash vs. equity breakdown, risk-adjusted value, and a clear data-backed recommendation on which to take.

📋

Export & Share

Download your full analysis as a PDF or copy a plain-text summary. Bring real data into your actual negotiation conversation.

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Know the Terms

Compensation Glossary

Don't let HR jargon confuse you. Here's what everything actually means.

💰 Base Pay

Base Salary
Your guaranteed annual pay before taxes. This is the fixed amount you'll receive regardless of performance. It's the foundation of your compensation.
Total Compensation (TC)
Everything combined: base salary + bonus + equity + benefits. This is the real number to compare when evaluating offers. A $120k base with $40k in equity beats a $140k base with nothing else.

🎯 Bonuses

Target Bonus
A bonus amount you're expected to receive if you and the company hit goals. Usually expressed as a % of base salary (e.g., "15% target bonus"). Not guaranteed — actual payout depends on performance.
Guaranteed Bonus
A bonus you will definitely receive, regardless of performance. Rare, but sometimes offered in the first year to offset leaving money behind at your previous job.
Discretionary Bonus
A bonus your manager can choose to give you. No set amount or guarantee — entirely up to the company's discretion. The least reliable type of bonus.
Sign-on Bonus
A one-time payment when you join. Often used to offset unvested equity or bonuses you're leaving behind. Usually requires you to stay 1-2 years or pay it back.

📈 Equity & Stock

RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)
Shares of company stock given to you over time. Once they "vest," they're yours to keep or sell. At public companies, RSUs have clear cash value. At private companies, value is uncertain until an IPO or acquisition.
Stock Options
The right to BUY shares at a set price (the "strike price"). Common at startups. Options only have value if the company's stock price rises above your strike price. Riskier than RSUs but potentially more upside.
Vesting Schedule
How your equity is released to you over time. A "4-year vest" means you get your shares gradually over 4 years. This keeps you at the company — leave early and you forfeit unvested shares.
Cliff
A waiting period before any equity vests. A "1-year cliff" means you get nothing if you leave before 12 months. After the cliff, a chunk vests at once, then the rest vests monthly or quarterly.
Grant Value
The total dollar value of your equity award. For RSUs, this is shares × current stock price. For options, it's the potential value if the stock rises. Divide by vesting years to get annual equity value.

🏥 Benefits

401(k) Match
Free money from your employer when you contribute to retirement. "6% match" means if you put in 6% of your salary, they add another 6%. This is pure extra compensation — always max it out.
PTO (Paid Time Off)
Days you can take off while still getting paid. Includes vacation, sick days, and personal days. "Unlimited PTO" sounds great but often means no payout when you leave and guilt about taking time off.
Health Premium
Your monthly cost for health insurance. Companies pay most of it; your share is deducted from your paycheck. Lower premiums = more take-home pay.

📊 Market Terms

Percentile (P10, P25, P50, P75, P90)
Where your pay ranks compared to others in the same occupation. P50 (median) means half earn more, half earn less. P75 means you earn more than 75% of peers. P90 is the top 10% — a useful ceiling when negotiating stretch targets. Below P50 is generally considered underpaid for the market. Comp Decoder uses BLS OEWS percentile data — the federal standard.
Pay Band / Salary Range
The min-to-max salary a company has budgeted for a role. Recruiters often won't share this, but pay transparency laws are changing that. Your goal: find out the band and aim for the upper half.
Pay Transparency Law
State laws requiring employers to post salary ranges in job listings or disclose them on request. As of March 2026, the following states have active laws: CA, CO, CT, HI, IL, MA, MD, MN, NJ, NV, NY, RI, VT, WA — plus Washington D.C. and several cities (NYC, Jersey City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo). Delaware's law passed in 2025 but takes effect September 2027. DOL Pay Transparency overview · Full state-by-state map. If your state is on this list, ask: "Can you share the full salary band for this role?" — they must tell you.
Comp Ratio (Compa-Ratio)
Your salary divided by the midpoint of the pay band, expressed as a percentage. A comp ratio of 85% means you're paid 85% of the midpoint — below market. 100% = exactly at midpoint. 115% = above midpoint. HR uses this internally; knowing it helps you argue for where in the band you should sit based on your experience and tenure.
OEWS / BLS OES
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — an annual federal survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics covering 830+ occupations. It's the most authoritative source of U.S. wage data, updated each May. Comp Decoder pulls live OEWS data for your job title via the CareerOneStop API, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor — so the benchmarks you see are the same numbers the government publishes.

🤝 Negotiation Terms

Counter Offer
When you respond to their offer with a higher number. This is negotiation — not rude, not greedy. 87% of employers expect it and won't rescind the offer.
Competing Offer
Another job offer you can use as leverage. The most powerful negotiation tool. Even if you prefer Company A, a signed offer from Company B gives you proof of your market value.
Exploding Offer
An offer with a very short deadline (e.g., "decide by Friday"). A pressure tactic. It's usually okay to push back and ask for more time — good companies understand big decisions take time.
Decode Your Offer →

Why is this free?

Most candidates leave $20,000+ on the table1 — not because they lack skill, but because they lack data. Employers know exactly what the role pays. You're negotiating blind. This tool changes that.

No paywalls. No email capture. No upsell to a "premium tier." No ads. The wage data powering this tool comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — a federal government source with no financial incentive to skew numbers in anyone's favor. That's the point.

Your data stays yours.
  • 🔒Nothing you enter is stored or logged
  • 📡Your job title and state are sent to the BLS API to fetch wage data — nothing else
  • 🤖The optional AI coach sends your offer details to Anthropic to generate scripts — not retained after the response
  • 🚫No account required. No tracking. No cookies.
  • 🗑️Close the tab and everything is gone
Data sources: BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics · CareerOneStop / U.S. Dept of Labor · Occupational Outlook Handbook · OPM Federal Pay Tables · DOL Pay Transparency

1 Based on an 18.83% average salary gain achieved by candidates who negotiate, applied to a $100,000 base offer. Source: Cullen, Z.B., Pakzad-Hurson, B., & Perez-Truglia, R. (2025). Pushing the Envelope: The Effects of Salary Negotiations. National Bureau of Economic Research / Harvard Business School. UCLA Anderson Review summary.

Built by Samir Saad — SPHR · MS Human Resource Development · OD Practitioner
Decode Your Offer →
Worker-first · Free
18.8%
Avg gain negotiated
66%
Success when asked
◎

Enter offer details to decode

Fill in what you know — even partial data generates a playbook. Built for workers, not recruiters.

TOTAL ANNUAL COMPENSATION — Your Role
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Annualized value including salary, bonus, equity, and benefits · Based on your inputs
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Year 1 Take-home
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3-Year Total
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Potential Gain
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5-Year Total
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Floor
Minimum
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Your Ask
Open here
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Stretch
Anchor high
Compensation Structure
Insights
Fallback benchmarks: BLS OEWS May 2024 national data. Enter a job title above for live data.   BLS OES · CareerOneStop legacy: Levels.fyi and Glassdoor.

Base Salary — Market Percentiles

P25P50P75P90

Pay Transparency Laws — Your State

✦
AI Negotiation Coach
Personalized advice based on your offer
Analyzing your offer...
Your Moves — In Priority Order
Counter-Offer Scripts
Offer 2 Details
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