Is the Equity Package Worth the Salary Cut?

When a company offers you equity in place of salary, they're asking you to accept risk in exchange for potential upside. The question is never "is equity good?" — it's "is this equity good enough to justify this specific salary gap, over my likely time horizon, at a realistic exit multiple?" The Salary vs Equity Calculator runs a full side-by-side comparison of two offers: one with higher salary and modest equity, one with lower salary and a larger equity grant. It models both on an after-tax, multi-year basis — accounting for your vesting schedule, the exit multiple you think is realistic, and the actual salary gap you'd be accepting. The output is a clear winner determination with a dollar-figure advantage, a timeline showing when (if ever) the equity offer overtakes the salary offer, and a scenario table showing how the winner changes across exit multiples from 0.5× to 10×. This is the calculator for anyone comparing a startup equity package against a higher-paying offer at a larger company — with their actual numbers, not generic assumptions.