What is more important to you, pay or benefits when considering accepting a job?

Pay.

Working environment

I’ze be demanding da moolah, sparkie!

I look at the whole package. And compare that to the whole package for any competing opportunity. But more and more, medical benefits seem to be important. Fewer and fewer companies offer decent medical plans.

Pay first, if the pay is enough you can cover the benefits. But a full on benefits package can make up for a less than competitive wage.

Both. I currently pay my health benefits out of pocket, so if I got a job that paid full health benefits but kept my salary the same, I would be pocketing an extra $350 a month. It all has to even out in the end and be, as a package, worth it.

I need benefits and money, both are equally important.

I would lean slightly more toward pay. The reason is that as long as you do your job, your pay is not normally reduced. But they can take away or reduce your benefits anytime, even if you are doing your job well. I once had a job with average pay but great benefits. But every time there was an economic downturn or the company wasn’t doing well, they cut our benefits. And once a certain benefit was gone, it never came back.

Up to a certain level (being able to live on that amount of money), pay. Once that level has been reached, benefits become much more important, particularly health insurance.

Wonga, spondoolicks, cash, bread, readies, show me the fucking money!!
After sober reflection on this issue, i’d have to say on balance, pay is paramount in my thoughts.

Pay. Over a mere three years of working at a company, they took us from one of the best Aetna PPOs that even covered unmarried partners to a terrible plan that reimbursed absolutely nothing for any out of network expenses. So benefits, in my experience, are not worth counting on as part of the hiring package in the long term.

It depends on what the benefits are. If they are things I would not otherwise need, then pay is more important. Benefits won’t pay my mortgage or put food on the table.

Definitely pay.

At the moment: pay. I never go to the hospital, anyway.

I agree with @wildpotato and @downtide. That’s what I was talking about when I said benefits might go away. If you lose your pay, that would mean you were laid off, and in that case you lose both your pay and your benefits. So, benefits are unreliable anyway.

What is even more irritating, your benefits could go away even if your company is doing well. Suppose you work for company A, and it’s doing well. Your competitor is company B, and it is not doing so hot due to some bad management decisions. Company B cuts some of its employees’ benefits. Now your company does some comparative market analysis and feels it can also cut those benefits and not fear losing you to the competition.

Pay if it’s private sector and benefits if it’s a county or govt. job.

Out of those two choices I would pick money. However, I would much rather choose a job that I like, so stress factor supercedes money or benefits in my case.