Pay Raise Calculator

Enter your current salary or hourly wage and the raise you were offered, as a percent or a dollar amount, and the calculator shows your new annual and hourly pay, how much more you earn each month, and the raise as a percentage. Add the inflation rate for the year and it also shows your real raise, the change in what your pay can buy, plus the raise you would need just to keep pace. It is useful for reviewing an offer, comparing a promotion with a job change, or preparing for a salary conversation.

annual pay = hourly wage × hours per week × 52

new pay = old pay × (1 + raise %), or old pay + raise amount

real raise = (1 + raise %) ÷ (1 + inflation %) − 1

The real raise uses the same method the Bureau of Labor Statistics applies to real earnings: nominal pay is deflated by the change in consumer prices. Subtracting inflation from the raise gives nearly the same answer for small numbers, but dividing is exact.

A 4% raise on $55,000.00 takes pay to $57,200.00, which is $183.33 more a month before tax. With 3% inflation, the real raise is 0.97%.

An extra $1.50 an hour on $25 is a 6% raise, worth $3,120.00 a year at 40 hours a week.

A 2% raise when prices rise 3.5% is a real pay cut of 1.45%. Keeping pace would have taken $2,100.00 more a year.

Raises compound: each one is applied to a salary that already includes the last. Over ten years, 4% a year raises pay by about 48%, while 3% a year raises it by about 34%. Retirement contributions that are a percentage of pay grow along with it, and future raises and job offers are often anchored to your current salary. That is why negotiating a slightly higher raise or starting salary can matter more than it first appears.

Start from the inflation-matched figure: anything below it means your pay buys less than last year. Then look at pay data for your role and location, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage tables, and list the results you delivered. Asking for a specific number, backed by evidence, tends to work better than asking for a vague increase. If the budget for base pay is fixed, a one-time bonus, extra paid leave or training support can make up part of the gap, and you can use this calculator to compare those offers on an annual basis.

For hourly pay, the calculator assumes the hours per week you enter for all 52 weeks. If your hours vary, use your average, and remember that overtime is paid at one and a half times the regular rate under federal law, so a raise in the base rate also raises your overtime rate.

The figures here are gross pay. Your paycheck rises by less, because federal and state income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and percentage-based deductions such as 401(k) contributions all increase with pay. A raise never reduces take-home pay overall in the US federal system, since higher tax rates apply only to the income above each bracket threshold, but benefits that phase out with income can reduce the net gain for some households.