I recently left a job that paid lower salaries and tried to focus on total compensation through bonus + benefits. The thing is, salary is steady and something I can budget my family off of. We can make decisions such as mortgage's, car payments, savings goals, investment goals, etc off of a salary. I can't do the same with a bonus. In fact, 08/09 made a lot of employees realize that the bonus can't be relied on in any way.
Is it possible to make more through total compensation of lower salary + bonus than high salary + little to no bonus? Sure. But I'm happier with the salary, and my hunch is that many other employees would feel the same.
This is the same for benefits. Benefits programs can have their terms modified from year to year.
A company with a great benefits program (ex. paying full tuition on a degree) can drop it from one year to the next.
So if you have a budget that includes that degree being paid for, you might find yourself suddenly strapped for cash when you are footing the bill for the degree yourself.
This is very true. The variability of a benefit should certainly be taken into account. My point was just that salary alone is not your complete compensation so it shouldn't be the only number looked at.
Is it possible to make more through total compensation of lower salary + bonus than high salary + little to no bonus? Sure. But I'm happier with the salary, and my hunch is that many other employees would feel the same.