Everyday Money Habits · Conversation guide
Reading a first job offer.
The first thing anyone reads is the hourly number, and that's fair — it's the part you can spend this week. But the wage is only half the offer. The other half is quieter: health coverage, a retirement match, paid days off. Across the country, benefits add up to roughly a third again on top of the wage. This sheet is for reading the whole offer together.
Look past the wage to score the whole offer — convert it to a yearly number, value the benefits, and ask the right questions before saying yes.
A first real job offer is on the table and the wage is the only number anyone has looked at.
1 · Turn the wage into a year
An hourly number is hard to compare. Turn it into a yearly wage first — that's the figure the benefits get added to.
2 · Score the benefits
Tick what the job actually includes. Where you can, jot what each is worth — roughly what you'd pay for it yourself. Two offers at the same wage can be very different jobs.
Health insurance
the employer pays most of the premium — money you'd otherwise spend yourself
Worth roughly$/ yrRetirement match
extra pay added to a 401(k) when you contribute — only if you put in enough to capture it
Worth roughly$/ yrPaid time off
days you don't work but still get paid for
Worth roughly$/ yrSick leave
paid days when you're ill, separate from vacation
Worth roughly$/ yrFull-time hours (35+/week)
the line most benefits live above — below it, employers rarely offer them
Worth roughly$/ yr
3 · What it's really worth
Add the wage and the benefits together. This — not the hourly rate — is what you're really being offered.
4 · Talk it through
- Once you add the benefits to the wage, what's the offer really worth?
- Are you already covered for health some other way — a parent's plan until 26, say? If so, weigh the match and the paid time off more heavily.
- If it's part-time, is there a path to the full-time role that carries the rest?
- In a tight market, is holding out for a better offer worth turning this one down?
5 · Three questions before you sign
You can ask all three in a two-minute call or email. The answers turn the unknowns on your scorecard into real numbers.
How many hours a week is this, and is there a path to full-time and benefits down the road?
Do you offer a retirement match, and how soon would I be eligible to start getting it?
If there's health coverage, when does it start and how much comes out of my paycheck for it?
6 · The one move no employer controls
Whatever you decide about this offer, one account in the picture has nothing to do with the company: a Roth IRA is yours. You open it, you fund it, and it follows you from job to job — match or no match. All it asks for is earned income, and a first job just gave you some; at a starter wage you're well under the income limits that would ever phase it out.
Open one, set one small automatic contribution, and start the clock no employer can start for you.
Based on the first-job-offer lesson.
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