Is a more stressful job worth the extra money?
A £6,000 rise is real money — £295 a month after deductions. Whether it survives the stress, the evenings and the on-call rota is a different calculation — and it deserves the same care as the tax maths. That is what the life axis is for.
The worked example
Same hours, same hybrid setup, same commute. The new role pays £6,000 more — and brings noticeably heavier stress, evenings some weeks, and an occasional on-call rota.
Current — £40,000
stress 4/10 · no evenings · no on-call
Offer — £46,000
same hours, same commute — heavier role
After 2026/27 tax, NI, Plan 2 and pension, the £6,000 pays £3,540 a year — £295 a month. That is the entire money case. Everything else this offer changes lives on the other axis.
What the calculator does with the stress
It refuses to hide it inside the money. The stress, evenings and on-call answers combine into a wellbeing rating (8.3 → 5.8 here), and because you have only met this team — not worked with them — the rated drop is discounted to 60% before it scores: claims about a job you have not done yet should not carry full confidence. The result lands on the life axis next to the money axis, and the verdict weighs the two by your own priorities.
With every priority at its default, this scenario reads money +1.4, life −0.3, verdict +0.55: 'slightly greener — switch' — by a whisker. Tell the calculator wellbeing matters 9/10 to you and the same numbers read 'too close to call'. Neither answer is wrong; they belong to different people. The point is that £6,000 does not settle the question by itself.
When the stressful job is worth it
Three honest cases. If the stress comes with a defined promotion path and real skills growth, the growth component scores it back — rate those honestly and watch the verdict move. If the stress is time-boxed — a known crunch with an exit — judge the year, not the fortnight you saw. And if the money clears your meaningful-rise bar by miles rather than by £3,540, the money axis will say so loudly. What the verdict protects you from is the quiet fourth case: paying three points of wellbeing for one point of money and calling it a no-brainer because the salary is bigger.
Related: what a rise really pays after tax and the same trade, run in reverse.
Run this scenario with your own numbers
The button opens the calculator pre-loaded with this exact worked example — change anything, including the ratings and your priorities, and every figure recomputes live, in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded.