I’ve never subscribed to the cult of overwork. In fact, I subscribe to the cult of maximizing my hourly rate. If I receive an salaried offer, the first thing I

I’ve never subscribed to the cult of overwork. In fact, I subscribe to the cult of maximizing my hourly rate. If I receive an salaried offer, the first thing I do is take into account company culture and the amount of guaranteed PTO (can’t stand the whole “flexible” PTO thing—always felt like a great way to peer pressure people into not taking PTO) to try and accurately calculate how many hours I’ll work in a year and then divide my base yearly salary by that. E.g. Job 1: average 40 hrs/week, 30 days PTO, yearly salary $100k Job 2: average 50 hrs/week, “flexible” PTO, yearly salary $130k The maths: Job 1 40(hr/wk) * 52(wk/yr) = 2080(hr/yr) 2080(hr/yr) - 240 hours PTO = 1840 hours worked per year $100k/1840 = $54.35/hr Job 2 “Flexible” PTO is a tough thing to estimate, obviously, but I’ll be generous and assume one takes 20 days. 50(hr/wk) * 52(wk/yr) = 2600(hr/yr) 2600(hr/yr) - 160 hours PTO = 2440 hours worked per year $130k/2440 = $53.28/hr So there ya go. Even with a 30% pay “increase”, overworking yourself as a salaried employee at Job2 ends up earning you less per hour than the salaried position at Job1. Obviously, there are all sorts of fair arguments for what _potential_ benefits you might reap from putting in those extra hours, so it’s entirely personal whether it’s worth it or not to you. Depends on how valuable 600 extra hours per year of free time is to you. For me, it’s Job1 999 times out of 1000.