Career Break Cost Calculator

Work out career break cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Career Break Cost Calculator

The cost of a career break is not just the salary you do not earn. Re-entry usually happens at a discount to where you would have been, and that gap persists for years, so the five-year figure is a far better representation of the true cost than the break itself.

Formulas

Earnings foregone

Foregone = Salary x Break years x (1 + Growth x Break years / 2)

Re-entry salary

Re-entry = Salary x (1 + Growth)^Break years x (1 - Re-entry discount %)

Worked example

With the default values below, Career Break Cost Calculator returns Earnings foregone during the break of $2,862,000.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Current annual salary: 1,800,000
Length of the break: 18
Salary growth you would have had: 8
Salary discount on re-entry: 10

Results

Earnings foregone during the break: $2,862,000.00
Likely re-entry salary: $1,818,237.66
Annual gap against the no-break path: $202,026.41
Total cost over the break plus five years: $3,872,132.03

Step by step

1Values used
2Earnings foregone
3Re-entry salary
4Earnings foregone during the break= 2,862,000.00
5Likely re-entry salary= 1,818,237.66
6Annual gap against the no-break path= 202,026.41
7Total cost over the break plus five years= 3,872,132.03

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the re-entry discount be avoided?

Often partly — keeping certifications current, doing part-time or project work, and returning through a returnship programme all reduce it.

Is a break always a net loss?

Financially usually yes in the short run, but breaks taken for retraining or a qualification frequently produce a higher long-run trajectory.