re: When do you value pension benefit vs pay?

As mentioned, a Pension is simply a defined benefit plan vs a defined contribution plan.

Many have long vesting periods or other restrictions to access.

When considering them against jobs, I simply make some assumptions around salary/etc and determine what the Pension projection may look like.

The bigger benefit in many Pension plans is the ability to continue health insurance after retirement. This is a little harder to evaluate, but most of those plans require extensive years of service to receive that benefit.