Career break calculator

Is stepping out of work worth it?

Childcare can eat most of a second salary, which is why many parents step out of the workforce. Childcare typically lasts up to five years and time out of work affects earnings for longer than that. Much of this decision is intangible and always will be. This is an attempt to put a number on the part that isn't.

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First, what a break typically costs

A worked example on a $70,000 salary. The pay you skip while you are home is the part everyone counts, and it is rarely the big part.

1 · While you are home

After tax and childcare, $70,000 becomes $26,000

Chart of where one year of an example $70,000 salary goes: a $4,200 retirement contribution, $19,740 of tax, $18,000 of childcare and $3,500 of work costs come out, a $1,200 dependent care credit goes back in, leaving $25,760, about 37 percent of the salary, actually available to spend. — Tax takes the biggest bite and childcare nearly matches it, so only about a third of the salary is left to spend. That is why stepping out can look like the obvious call: with more than one child in care, working may not clear the childcare bill at all.

2 · After you go back

You restart at the salary you left

Chart of annual salary over 30 years for two paths on an example salary: staying in work throughout, and taking two years out before returning on the salary you left. The break drops to zero, rejoins below the line that stayed in, and never catches it. The shaded space between the two is the pay never earned. — Everyone who stayed kept getting raises. The gap opens at about $4,300 a year and reaches $9,000 by year 30. The smooth climb is an average: real pay moves in jumps, often by changing jobs, and that is also how returners catch up. The calculator lets the gap close over a number of years you set.

3 · Across a whole career

Over 30 years: $142,000 to $645,000

Chart of what a career break costs over 30 years on an example $70,000 salary, returning at your old salary. A one year break costs about $142,000, two years $277,000, three years $406,000 and five years $645,000. In every case the pay missed while out is the small part, with the rest coming from the raises and retirement growth never earned after returning. — The pay missed while home is the dark stub, about a quarter of every bar. The rest comes after the return: lower pay, smaller retirement contributions, and decades of lost growth on both. That growth is what the first two charts cannot show.

Illustrative projections, not forecasts, from the same engine the calculator below runs: a $70,000 salary, 3% average pay growth, 6% investment returns, a 6% retirement contribution with a 3% match, a 30% effective tax rate, and $18,000 a year of childcare for five years. Figures 1 and 2 use a two-year break. It does not model Social Security, real tax brackets, or inflation. Your own numbers go in the calculator below. Not financial advice.

Run your own numbers ↓

Run your own numbers

Enter your salary and how long you would step out of the workforce. Everything else has a sensible default you can change.
New to this? Start from an example, then swap in your own figures.

This tool projects the figures you enter and takes no view on what you should do. Money is one input to this decision, and not the biggest one for every family.

Start from an example

Loads a full scenario and calculates it. Edit anything below to match your own.

Your details updating…

1 Your job ▾

Your salary (before tax)

Years out

Years to retirement

When you go back, you return

Same level Lower Part-time

Same level still costs you the raises you missed while out.

2 Childcare ▾

Childcare while you work ($ a year)

Not sure? Work it out in the childcare calculator and it will carry over.

Years you'll pay for care

About five years per child before school starts, longer if after-care follows.

3 Refine (optional, defaults if skipped) ▾

Yearly raise (%)

Investment return (%)

You contribute (%)

Employer match (%)

Effective tax rate on this salary (%)

A second income stacks on top of a partner's, so it is taxed at your household's higher rate, not the average one. One rate stands in for the whole tax code here.

Work costs ($ a year)

FSA & credits ($ a year)

Work costs are commuting, parking, lunches, and clothes. Offsets are the dependent care FSA and childcare tax credit, counted only while you are paying for care.

Illustrative projection. Planning tool only.

Your plan shows up here

Add your salary and hit Calculate, or start from an example above.

What the numbers leave out

A projection can only count money, and most of what makes this decision hard is not money. The number above is one input to a decision that has many. It is worth knowing, which is why the tool exists, and it is not the answer on its own.

The years themselves

Early childhood happens once. Nothing here prices it.

How the days actually feel

Full-time work and full-time care are both hard, in different ways. Only you know which one costs you more.

What a job gives back

Colleagues, structure, identity, and work you might miss. Often the health insurance too, which this projection does not count.

A second income is insurance

It cushions a layoff, an illness, or a separation, and that protection never shows up in a total.

Care you cannot outsource

A child with additional needs, or a parent who needs you, changes the math entirely.

Whose career pauses

The model runs one salary. Which one steps back, and why, is a conversation it cannot have.

Your field moves while you're out

How fast depends on the work. Coming back can mean relearning the job, so staying in, even part-time, may protect your skills more than your earnings.

The care has to exist

Waitlists, infant spots, and hours that fit a real shift are not a given. The cheaper option on paper is worth nothing if you cannot get it.

Career break FAQ

Is it worth going back to work after having a baby?

In year one it often looks marginal: childcare, taxes on a second income, and commuting can swallow most of a salary, and some families genuinely lose money in the first year or two. Over a career it usually looks very different, because raises and retirement contributions compound on a salary you keep earning. This calculator shows both views side by side so you can see where your own numbers land, rather than deciding on the first year alone.

What is the opportunity cost of staying home with your kids?

It is the pay you skip while you are home plus everything that follows from it: the raises you never earn, the lower salary you may return to, and the retirement contributions and investment growth you miss. In a typical projection the time out is the smaller part. For a $70,000 salary and a three year break, the missed pay is around $102,000 but the 30 year total is around $406,000, and more if you return below your old level.

Does a career break really lower your pay permanently?

Research on career breaks consistently finds returners earn less than otherwise similar people who stayed in, and that the gap persists for years. Some of it is simply the raises missed while out; some is coming back at a lower level. This tool lets you set that directly: return at your old salary, a chosen percentage below it, or part-time. If you expect to catch up fully, use the same-level option, which still counts the raises you missed.

How does childcare change the answer?

Childcare is usually the single biggest cost of working, and it is temporary. It typically runs for about five years per child before school starts, while the salary and the retirement contributions continue for decades. That mismatch is why a decision that looks bad in year one often looks very different across a career. You can bring your real childcare number over from the childcare calculator.

What does this calculator not include?

It does not model Social Security (years out of work can reduce that too), real tax brackets, state taxes, or inflation. Tax is a single effective rate you set, and every figure is nominal. Take-home pay is added up as earned rather than invested, and only retirement contributions compound. Treat the output as an illustrative projection, not a forecast.

What about the things money cannot measure?

They are usually the deciding factor, and this tool cannot see any of them: the years themselves, which arrangement is actually survivable day to day, what work gives you beyond pay, caregiving that cannot be outsourced, and whose career is treated as the one to pause. A second income is also a form of insurance against a layoff, an illness, or a separation, which never appears in a total. The money is worth knowing precisely because it is the part you can put a number on, not because it is the most important part.

Is this financial advice?

No. It is an independent planning tool that projects the numbers you enter, and it does not store what you type. Money is only one input to this decision: health, caregiving needs, job quality, and what you actually want are not in the model. For advice about your own finances, talk to a qualified financial adviser.