On call

The rotation is unpaid work with a phone.

A salary that ignores on call is a costume. One week in four is 13 weeks, 91 nights. Price the nights before you call the offer generous.

1 weeks on call

7 nights a year the phone can ring. If each night is worth one kept hour of sleep you do not get back, that is 7 hours. At $40, $280. Your hour is probably not $40. Put the salary in.

4 weeks on call

28 nights a year the phone can ring. If each night is worth one kept hour of sleep you do not get back, that is 28 hours. At $40, $1,120. Your hour is probably not $40. Put the salary in.

12 weeks on call

84 nights a year the phone can ring. If each night is worth one kept hour of sleep you do not get back, that is 84 hours. At $40, $3,360. Your hour is probably not $40. Put the salary in.

26 weeks on call

182 nights a year the phone can ring. If each night is worth one kept hour of sleep you do not get back, that is 182 hours. At $40, $7,280. Your hour is probably not $40. Put the salary in.

Annual salary Real hours per week, including the ones that “don’t count” Weeks you actually work Combined tax load, percent Round-trip commute, minutes Commute days per week Meeting hours per week

—Kept hour, after tax

—Kept hour after commute is counted as work

—Gross hourly, before tax

—Evening hours already sold (over 40 / week)

—Commute, valued at your kept hour

—Meetings, valued at your kept hour, per year

—Take-home, same tax load

The calculator stays free. The $39 sheet is a human check of the same numbers, not a locked file.

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A fair rule

If the rotation is one week in four, add 10 hours to the real week before you compare offers. That is not a law. It is the week the salary is hiding. Name the pager or do not take the title.

Compare two offers with the week included: the higher salary often loses.