How to Read a US Job Offer: Salary, Bonus, 401(k), and Benefits

How to Read a US Job Offer is a skill nobody teaches, and it costs people real money. You opened the PDF, saw the base salary, felt the rush, and started spending it in your head. That is how offers end up worth thousands less than they looked.

Here is the catch. The bonus may be discretionary. The 401(k) match may vest over years. KFF’s 2026 survey found workers pay an average of $7,471 a year toward family health coverage. Miss those lines, and two offers with the same base can sit thousands of dollars apart.

I will walk you through every line, from bonus to benefits to the fine print, using 2026 numbers. For more real pay data before you answer, browse the salary guides and career resources on WhatIsTheSalary.

How to Read a US Job Offer Letter, Section by Section

Most US offers arrive as a letter or PDF with a familiar order. First come the job title, start date, manager, and work location. Pay comes next, then benefits, then conditions.

Many employers send only a short letter and keep the details in a separate benefits summary. If you only received the letter, ask for the summary. I would not decide anything until I had both documents.

I sort every line into three buckets:

Base Salary: The Number Everything Else Leans On

Start with the basics. Confirm whether the figure is annual or hourly, and whether the role is exempt or non-exempt. Non-exempt employees are generally owed overtime pay for hours past 40 in a week. Exempt employees generally are not.

Base also feeds other lines. Your 401(k) match, life insurance, disability coverage, and bonus target are often calculated as a percentage of base. A higher base lifts all of them at once, which is why I treat it as the first thing to negotiate.

Career changers, such as people breaking into cybersecurity without a degree, often feel pressure to say yes on the spot. Read first. A good employer expects it.

Bonuses: Target, Discretionary, and Signing

A target bonus is what you earn if you and the company hit goals. The real payout can land above or below it. I ask three questions:

Timing matters too. Many plans require you to be employed on the payout date, so leaving in November can cost you a March bonus.

A signing bonus is cash up front, and it often comes with a clawback. Leave within 12 to 24 months and you may owe some or all of it back. A $20,000 bonus with a 24-month clawback works out to $10,000 per year, and only if you stay.

Variable pay often grows at senior levels. If you are heading toward security leadership, the CISO salary guide shows what those packages can look like.

Equity and RSUs in Plain English

Tech companies and many public employers add restricted stock units, or RSUs. An RSU is a promise of company shares that vest over time, commonly over four years. Read three things: the grant size, the vesting schedule, and the cliff.

A one-year cliff means nothing vests until your first anniversary. Leave at month eleven and you walk away with zero shares.

RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at the market price on the day they vest, so the dollar value moves with the stock. I treat RSU value as an estimate, and I ask about annual refresh grants, because pay can drop once the first grant finishes vesting.

How to Read the 401(k) Section

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement account where you contribute pre-tax or Roth money from each paycheck. In the offer, I look for four things: the match formula, the vesting schedule, the eligibility date, and whether the plan offers a Roth option.

The match formula

Vanguard’s 2026 benchmark data shows an average maximum employer match of 4.7% of pay, with a median of 4%. Vanguard’s earlier reports have named 50 cents on the dollar for the first 6% of pay as the most common formula. At the median, a $100,000 salary earns about $4,000 a year in match.

Vesting and eligibility

Your own contributions are always yours. The employer match can sit behind a vesting schedule. Vanguard has reported that roughly half of plans with a match vest it immediately, while about a quarter use a five or six year graded schedule. If you change jobs often, that detail can cost you real money.

The 2026 limits

The IRS set the 2026 employee contribution limit at $24,500, up from $23,500. Workers 50 and older can add an $8,000 catch-up, and workers aged 60 to 63 can add $11,250. The combined limit for employee and employer contributions is $72,000.

Health Insurance: The Benefit That Costs Real Money

This is the line that surprises people most. KFF published its 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey on October 22, 2026. It puts the average annual premium at $28,303 for family coverage and $9,804 for single coverage.

Workers pay part of that. The average worker contribution is $7,471 for family coverage and $1,672 for single coverage. The family figure rose 9% in a year, while KFF reported wages rose 3.7%.

So two offers with the same base can sit thousands of dollars apart because of the plan alone. Before I compare anything, I ask for:

If the plan pairs with a health savings account, the IRS 2026 limits are $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage. Some employers add their own deposit, and that deposit counts as pay.

PTO, Holidays, and Smaller Perks

BLS data for March 2025 shows private industry workers averaged 11 paid vacation days after one year, 15 after five years, and 18 after ten. Paid sick leave averaged 7 days, and the average worker received 8 paid holidays.

On the PTO line, I check whether unused days roll over and whether they get paid out when you leave. State law varies on that last one.

Fine Print Most People Skip

This section decides whether the numbers above hold up. I am not a lawyer, so treat these as questions to ask, and have a professional review anything that feels unclear.

Compare Two Offers by Total Compensation

Here is the method I use. List every line for each offer, count the bonus at target, count RSUs at their yearly vest value, subtract your share of health premiums, and run year one and year two separately. The two offers below are hypothetical examples I built, not market data.

Line item	Offer A	Offer B
Base salary	$105,000	$98,000
Target bonus	$5,250 (5%)	$7,840 (8%)
401(k) match	$3,150 (3%)	$3,920 (4%)
RSUs, yearly vest value	$0	$8,000
Signing bonus	$0	$6,000 (year 1 only)
Your health premium share	-$9,000	-$4,500
Year 1 total	$104,400	$119,260
Year 2 total	$104,400	$113,260

Offer A has the higher base by $7,000. Offer B still comes out about $14,900 ahead in year one and $8,900 ahead in year two, if the bonus pays at target and the stock holds its value.

Notice year two. The signing bonus disappears and the gap shrinks. Plenty of people compare only year one, then feel a pay cut later without knowing why.

Why Your Bonus Check Looks Smaller Than Expected

Bonuses and RSU vests count as supplemental wages. Under IRS Publication 15, employers can withhold federal income tax at a flat 22% on supplemental wages up to $1 million in a year, and at 37% above that. Social Security, Medicare, and state tax come out too.

That 22% is a withholding rate, not your final tax rate. If your marginal bracket sits higher, you may owe the difference when you file. I would not budget the full gross bonus.

Where you live adds another layer, since state income tax and cost of living differ between cities. If you work in data, the breakdown of data scientist salary by city shows how much location can move the same title.

How to Ask Questions and Negotiate Without Losing the Offer

Reading the offer is half the job. The other half is replying well. Companies expect questions, and a polite email rarely puts an offer at risk.

1. Thank them, then ask. Open with real enthusiasm, then request the benefits summary and plan costs in writing.
2. Ask for time. No law sets a standard response time. Asking for a few extra days to review is common and reasonable.
3. Negotiate in order. Base first, since it feeds your match and bonus. Then a signing bonus to cover pay you give up by leaving. Then equity, then PTO or start date.
4. Skip what policy fixes. Match formulas and health premiums usually follow company-wide rules, so I spend my effort elsewhere.

The calm you built answering behavioral interview questions carries over here. Keep your tone steady, give one reason for each ask, and stay open to a middle ground. If you want a refresher on tone, the guide on what to wear and say in a US job interview still applies.

Think past year one, too. Raises often come faster from a level change than from yearly increases, and the cybersecurity career path shows how roles step up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Share Your Offer Story

Did a clause surprise you, or did you negotiate something I missed? Tell me in the comments. Real offer stories help the next reader.

If you are still earlier in the process, two guides can help you reach the offer stage: how ATS filters work in US job applications and what US resume vs CV expectations look like.

How This Article Was Created

Figures come from IRS 2026 limits and Publication 15, KFF’s survey published October 22, 2026, BLS data for March 2025, and Vanguard’s June 2026 reports. I invented no figures, and the comparison table is a labeled example. I wrote this to inform job seekers, not to recruit or advertise. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice.