How much more salary would make the transition to a new job worthwhile?

[busymama77]

I have a 4th inteview on Monday and the person that called me to set up the meeting with the owner has a really good feeling that he's going to offer me something.  I currently make $34,400.  I have free benefits which is a HUGE reason why I'm still at my current job and I get a $500 bonus each Christmas.  That's it. 

With this new job, I would get a monthly profit sharing bonus that could be anywhere from $500 to $1,000 after taxes.  They do not figure this monthly bonus in to the yearly salary.  I'm sure I'll say I need some time to go over this with my husband to make sure this will work for our finances.  But how much more should I really be looking for to make the transition worthwhile?  My mom thinks I should ask for $10K more but I also have to figure in that this new company doesn't offer free insurance, but apparently it is a really good plan, according to the owner.

Thoughts??

[nola79]

Well, I agree with your mom. Free benefits is huge, and you'll need to compensate for that if you go with the new job. Good Luck!

[cileag]

What else is appealing about the job? Better commute?  More intellectual enjoyment?  If it's simply the money factor, leaving free benefits would have to equal about 10,000 in my book too.  My plan is "good" too and it is $700 a month for the family plan.  Crunch the numbers, but  more importantly, I'd look at the other aspects of the job---the morale of the place, the family friendly nature, comeraderie, etc.

[choli]

Much depends on how good the benefits you have now are - I know mine are worth around $20,000 pa. That's medical, life, disability, dental, legal, etc.

[busymama77]

Originally Posted by cileag 

What else is appealing about the job? Better commute?  More intellectual enjoyment?  If it's simply the money factor, leaving free benefits would have to equal about 10,000 in my book too.  My plan is "good" too and it is $700 a month for the family plan.  Crunch the numbers, but  more importantly, I'd look at the other aspects of the job---the morale of the place, the family friendly nature, comeraderie, etc.

Commute is about 10 mins less than what I'm driving now, so that's not a big factor. I think the main factor for this new job is that it's something that I've never done before but have always been interested in doing it - I'd be a recruiter - helping people find jobs.  It's a small firm - only 6 employees - family friendly, open to new ideas and they welcome feedback on everything.  My current situation is that I'm stuck and there's no room for advancement.  This is it and I'm tired of feeling 'stuck' when I know that there's more money to be made and there's something out there that I could actually use my brain for instead of mailing a package or looking up a hotel for a client.  I'm burnt out and I'm bored.

[busymama77]

Originally Posted by cileag 

What else is appealing about the job? Better commute?  More intellectual enjoyment?  If it's simply the money factor, leaving free benefits would have to equal about 10,000 in my book too.  My plan is "good" too and it is $700 a month for the family plan.  Crunch the numbers, but  more importantly, I'd look at the other aspects of the job---the morale of the place, the family friendly nature, comeraderie, etc.

[Quinalla]

Sit down and figure out how much getting equivalent benefits to what you have now is going to cost and ask for at least that much more to your base salary. Profit sharing is awesome, but for me anyway, not something I would count on. Definitely don't sell yourself short, us women are bad about not asking for as much as we should (I'm just as guilty of this too).