How can it have been "just the money"?
She was on $82k and was going to give up that and the 10 years "tenure" and accumulated benefits for $87k.
The $87k would stay that for a year but presumably the $82k would have been subject to a 3-4% increase during the year.
That leaves a marginal increase and a very short term gain unless there were some other benefits or expectations as well since it is not going to be much more than a year before she is back to par with her old job.
Changing jobs always requires some consideration and it also means understanding your own motives and objectives. If you are going to go for the money then you should have some understanding of what is an acceptable increase, not just for now but for the future.
We all know that the longer you stay in one job, that year-on-year you slip toward the bottom quartile salary and rewards for the job.
Usually we should expect better rewards/career progression to come from:
[ul][li]A good pay rise for the same job with current employer. A virtual impossibility except using the counter-offer scenario. Very very risky.[/li]
[li] Change jobs (like for like) for 10% or better plus no loss of benefits (trade losses for better wages);very safe and that 10 years service can be used to demonstrate stability and loyalty (that you are a long term patsy and they will greatly benefit in the future when they get you back down in the lowest quartile again; i.e. you are a good long term risk).[/li]
[li]internal promotion for whatever you can get. Usually this is not much and these days it is often just more responsibility and more workload for a nominal amount extra and sometimes, with "restructuring" it is more jobs for the same money and no apparent promotion as you take on the jobs of those "let go" in addition to your own. A very poor outcome.[/li]
[li] The best of all, and used frequently enough is how bad managers get to be even worse CEOs before being retired with Golden handshakes; promotion to a new employer for wheelbarrows full of the stuff.[/li][/ul]
So, is she being honest with herself? Was it really the money or was she dissatisfied with something and has just assumed it was the money without really analysing her dissatisfaction?
If it was just the money then it was not a very successful exercise to go out and get an $87k replacement for $82k plus 3-4% annual adjustment. One or two years and she is no better off.
Of all counter-offer acceptance scenarios, this is one with more than the usual risks.
Here, the employer will already be thinking $82k to $97k is a big step and he may be regretting that, he will certainly be looking for his money's worth and he may even be looking for a way out.
But the truth has a nasty way of surfacing when you don't want it to.
I know one guy who was offered a new job with his original employer, then found a much better job elsewhere and grabbed it. He hadn't even started on the new job with the old employer. However, the old employer was so upset by this that he immediately indulged in some character assassination and wrote to the new employer.
So just consider that prospective employer and old employer could communicate with each other and how it would be if in this case the employer discovers he has been finessed.
JMW