I know you've already made a counter offer, but to me it boils down to how much you want or need the job.

 

I was recently offered a job with lower pay, but more time at home with a company I used to work for.  Their salary offer came in about where I would be if I had stayed there instead of leaving 6 years ago.  My annual raises would have brought me to that number.  What ultimately made me stay with the current company was that the other company refused to negotiate on vested vacation time.  I had worked there for 7 years in a row prior to leaving, and I wanted to start off where I left off.

 

They claimed their policy was based on other returning employees, and that those employees had also started at year 0.  5 years in, you get an extra week of vacation.  10 years in, you earn another week for a total of 4 weeks.  They would have had me starting out back at square 1, with only 2 weeks of vacation.  Bear in mind, all parties concerned agreed I had done exceptional work for them in my 7 years of employment.

 

So I turned the job down, not because of the extra lost week of vacation, but because the company refused to negotiate over something I felt was perfectly reasonable.  If they are going to be unreasonable about the smallest of things, what do you think will happen when big things pop up?

 

I guess that's something to consider aside from salary, so look at the entire package when considering employment, and good luck with whatever comes up.

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