About GlobalComp

Why we built this

Comparing compensation across countries is one of the hardest decisions professionals face — and one of the most poorly served by existing tools. A $180,000 offer in San Francisco is not equivalent to a $180,000 offer in London, Singapore, or Dubai. After tax differentials, cost-of-living adjustments, equity vesting differences, and benefits variations, the same nominal number can mean a 30-50% difference in actual purchasing power and savings rate.

Most people make these decisions with bad information. They look at base salary, perhaps factor in headline tax rates, and ignore the rest. They accept relocation offers that look generous but underwater them once they arrive. They reject offers that seem low but would have been life-changing on a normalized basis. GlobalComp exists to give you the data to make these decisions deliberately.

This is especially important for professionals in three situations: comparing remote-work offers from employers in different countries, evaluating international relocation or expat assignments, and negotiating compensation when moving between markets. In each case, the right answer depends on real data — not gut feel.

How we calculate

GlobalComp normalizes total compensation across countries using five factors:

• Base salary: Your guaranteed annual cash compensation, converted to a common reference currency.
• Annual bonus: Target bonus as a percentage of base. We assume target achievement; actual bonus varies by performance.
• Equity: Annualized value of RSU grants, stock options, or phantom equity, distributed across the vesting period. We use grant-date value, not projected appreciation.
• Benefits: Country-specific benefits value including employer-provided healthcare, pension contributions, vacation accrual, and other significant non-cash components.
• Effective tax rate: Country-specific effective tax rate at your income level, including national income tax, social contributions, and (where applicable) state or regional taxes.

The output normalizes after-tax compensation against cost-of-living indices so you can compare what your money actually buys in each market. We use indices from Numbeo, Expatistan, and Mercer cost-of-living reports, weighted by recency and sample size.

How we stay independent

GlobalComp receives no payment from employers, recruiting firms, or relocation companies. We are not affiliated with any specific employer, immigration consultancy, or expat services provider. Our compensation data comes from public salary surveys, self-reported platforms, posted job board ranges, and reader submissions.

We monetize through display advertising and affiliate referrals to compensation analysis tools, international tax services, and currency-transfer services where these provide genuine value to readers. These affiliate relationships are disclosed and don't affect editorial content.

Who runs GlobalComp

GlobalComp is built by an independent team in Botswana with backgrounds in international HR analytics, expat consulting, and cross-border compensation benchmarking. We have firsthand experience with international relocations, remote-work compensation negotiations, and the practical challenges of comparing offers across radically different tax and cost regimes.

We are a small team currently working part-time on GlobalComp. Reader feedback drives most of our refinements, especially country-specific tax and benefits data which varies more than published rates suggest.

What's coming next

Our 2026 roadmap includes additional countries (currently 15+; expanding to 25+ including Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Israel, Turkey), industry-specific benefits benchmarks (tech, finance, consulting), expat-specific calculators (cost-of-living differential for assignment compensation), and historical exchange-rate tracking for evaluating offers paid in different currencies.

If you have specific countries, roles, or scenarios you'd like covered, please contact us.