Waiting time is the calendar time you wait for this much take-home pay to build up, weekends and leave included. It is always the larger of the two measures.

Effort is the share of your working life the job spends earning it: take-home after commuting, divided by every hour the job takes (paid, overtime, commute, getting ready, lunch, recovery).

The line shows what the money would grow to if invested instead of spent, as a single compound annual rate with no further contributions. The shaded gap is the growth you give up. It is not adjusted for inflation, so lower the rate for today's money.