A useful comparison does not tell anyone what their household should choose. It shows which assumptions are carrying the decision, and lets people change them together.
Put assumptions on the table
The calculus is not a verdict. It is a set of costs, care, and time made visible.
Compare two household paths with your own numbers. No universal answer. No invented data. Just a clearer place to start the conversation.
Compare the pathsSee the methodWhat does each path leave your household with?
Your monthly assumptions
Home labor value is an optional estimate of paid help, lost services, or work you would otherwise need to buy. It is not a wage claim.
Live comparison
Method
Paid work = gross pay minus estimated taxes, care, and work costs. Staying home = the entered replacement value of care and home labor.
Use with care
Health coverage, career trajectory, family preference, safety, identity, and unpaid labor are real even when no spreadsheet captures them. This is a starting point for a conversation, not a scorecard.
Bring a clearer question to the table.
Rework the numbersEntered pay, costs and hours change a household comparison
Read the explanation
The saved comparison enters sixty two hundred dollars gross monthly pay and twenty four percent estimated tax. Multiplying pay by one minus zero point two four gives forty seven hundred twelve dollars before the entered care and commute costs. Bars share seven hundredths of a pixel per dollar, comparing gross with after-tax pay. This is a flat entered estimate, not a tax calculation, linked income record or financial recommendation. The source subtracts sixteen hundred fifty dollars care cost and four hundred twenty commute or work cost from forty seven hundred twelve after-tax dollars. The result is twenty six hundred forty two. Compared with the entered eleven hundred home-labor replacement value, the signed difference is fifteen hundred forty two in favor of paid work under these assumptions. Bars share fifteen hundredths of a pixel per dollar. The home value is an input estimate, not a judgment of care, a wage guarantee or a recommendation. The saved inputs list one hundred seventy six paid-work hours and one hundred sixty eight care and home hours per month. Bars share two point four pixels per hour. Care and home minus work equals negative eight, so the source says eight fewer listed hours for the care and home path. This separate time difference is not converted into dollars and does not measure workload, wellbeing or actual time use. Negative numeric fields clamp to zero for arithmetic; raw input strings remain stored. Export is an assumptions report, not a personal decision.