Career break cost calculator
A career break costs more than the wages you miss while you are away. Returning at the same salary means the growth you would have earned during the break never happens, and that gap repeats every year afterwards.
Nothing is uploaded. This page does the arithmetic in your browser using JavaScript. The numbers you enter never leave your device.
How this is calculated
Two things are calculated. First, the wages you do not earn during the break itself.
Second, the compounding gap. Your salary would have grown during the break; by returning at your old figure you start lower than you otherwise would have, and every subsequent year is affected.
The gap compounds because future rises are usually a percentage of your current salary. A lower base means smaller raises in absolute terms, year after year, which is why the long-run figure grows faster than most people expect.
Worked example: $60,000 with a 12-month break at 3% growth: $60,000 in lost wages. The salary gap is $1,800 a year, which compounds to about $20,675 across 20 remaining years. Total estimated cost around $80,675.
Common questions
Is the total really that large?
It depends heavily on the years-to-retirement field. Over twenty years the compounding effect is roughly a third of the total. Set it to zero to see the immediate, certain cost on its own — that figure is the one you can rely on most.
Does this assume I cannot recover my salary level?
It assumes you return at your pre-break salary in nominal terms while growth continues elsewhere. In practice some people return above their old level and others below. This is a modelled scenario, not a prediction about you.
What about the savings from not working?
Real, and not included. Commuting, childcare, and work-related costs often fall during a break. Subtract your own annual work-related costs from the result to get a fairer picture.
What this does not do: This models a scenario, not your future. It ignores inflation, promotions, career changes, redundancy, part-time returns, and the possibility of earning more afterwards. Income is not the only measure of whether a break is worth taking, and a break may be the right decision even when the numbers look like this.
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