Counter offers: should you stay when your employer matches the new job's pay?

Why counter offers happen, and why they can disappoint

When you resign, your employer faces the cost and disruption of replacing you: recruiting, training someone new, and the gap in the meantime. Matching the new salary can look cheaper than all of that, which is why counter offers often arrive quickly, sometimes the same day.

That speed is worth noticing. A counter offer made to avoid a problem is not always a sign that your employer has rethought how it values you. Some people who accept find that the things that made them look are still there six months later, and that the trust between them and their manager has shifted now that everyone knows they were ready to leave.

None of that makes every counter offer a mistake. Some are exactly the correction that was overdue. The test is whether it deals with the reasons you started looking.

What the money fixes and what it does not

Go back to why you started looking. Write the reasons down, in order of importance, before you talk to anyone about the counter offer.

• If the main reason was pay, and the counter brings it to where it should be, the money genuinely fixes the problem. Check that it is a lasting change to your base salary rather than a one-off payment.
• If the reasons were the work, the manager, the lack of progression, the hours or the culture, the counter leaves them where they were. You would be paid more to stay in the situation you had decided to leave.
• If it was a mix, ask what else the employer is prepared to change, and get it in writing.

Be honest about one more thing: the new job is a new job, with its own unknowns. The counter offer comes with the known downsides of your current role, and the new offer with risks you cannot see yet. Weigh both before you answer either employer.

Comparing the two on take-home and on what matters most

Put the two offers side by side on the same basis. Compare pay after tax, then add everything else that has a value: employer KiwiSaver, any bonus and how likely it is to be paid, health insurance, a vehicle or allowance, extra leave, and the cost of each commute.

The Offer Comparer works out the take-home side of two offers at 2026/27 rates, with employer KiwiSaver, a bonus, health insurance and a vehicle, and needs no account. Our article on comparing two job offers sets out how to weigh the parts money does not capture.

Then compare them on what you care about beyond pay: the work itself, who you would work for, flexibility, security and where each role leads. A short list of what matters most to you, with a score for each option, often makes the decision clearer than any salary figure.

The questions to ask your manager before deciding

If you are considering the counter, a conversation with your manager is worth having before you answer. Useful questions include:

• "What changes, apart from the pay?" If the answer is nothing, that tells you a lot.
• "Why was this possible now, and not at my last review?"
• "What would my next two years here look like: the work, the progression and the next pay review?"
• "Will this be confirmed in writing, as a variation to my employment agreement?"

If you have already resigned, remember that you can ask to withdraw a resignation, but Employment New Zealand notes your employer does not have to agree, so get both the counter offer and the withdrawal confirmed in writing before you turn the new job down. If you have already signed the new employer's agreement, check its notice terms before you tell them.

Give yourself a short, fixed time to decide, and tell both employers when you will answer. Keep the new employer informed honestly, because you may want to work with them in future even if you stay. Our guide to salary negotiation in New Zealand covers how to hold these conversations calmly.

Whatever you choose, keep the record

Write down what each side offered, when, and what was agreed, and keep the written confirmation. If you stay, it is the baseline for your next review. If you go, it is part of the record of what you were worth to two employers at the same moment, which is useful the next time you negotiate.

In jobtracker.co.nz, each job keeps an offers and counters record: what they offered, what you countered and when, and how the offer moved from first figure to last. If you decide to go, our article on how to resign in New Zealand covers notice and final pay.

Make the call on the record