How much is a raise really worth? Enter your current salary or hourly rate, the raise as a percentage or a dollar amount, and your own price-change assumption for the same period. You get old and new gross pay plus the new pay in original-period dollars. The main limit: this is gross pay, not take-home pay.
For a hypothetical $60,000 salary, a 5% raise adds $3,000 a year. If prices rise 3% over the same period, the new $63,000 buys about what $61,165.05 bought before, a real increase of about 1.94%, not 2%. The calculator does not fetch a live inflation reading.
Pay raise calculator
This calculator runs in your browser. This calculator’s code does not send, save, or track your entries. All dollar amounts are USD.
Optional example: Inputs start blank. Load example fills hypothetical figures without calculating. Examples are not current rates, quotes, or recommendations.
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Inputs start blank, and the Load example figures are hypothetical. Old and new figures are full-year gross-pay equivalents under constant hours and rates, not a forecast of your next paycheck.
How do you set up the pay raise calculator?
- Select annual salary or hourly rate. A fixed-dollar raise uses the same unit: $3,000 per year in salary mode or $2 per hour in hourly mode.
- For hourly pay, enter expected annual hours paid at that rate. A common planning figure is 2,080 hours, which means 40 hours × 52 weeks with no overtime premium. Unpaid leave or schedule changes can make your actual pay differ.
- Enter a percentage raise or a fixed-dollar amount. Enter 5 to mean 5%, not 0.05. The calculator accepts increases, not pay cuts.
- Enter the total assumed change in prices between the old-pay date and the new-pay date. The 3% used in this article is a hypothetical example, not today’s CPI. Zero means you assume no price change.
Match the inflation period to the pay comparison. For a raise one year after your last one, use a price change for that year. For two dates six months apart, use the change over those six months, not an annual rate. The tool has no date fields, so it cannot check this for you.
What is a 5% raise worth after 3% inflation?
Inputs. Hypothetical example: a $60,000 annual salary, a 5% raise and an assumed 3% price change over the same period.
Formula. Raise = $60,000 × 0.05 = $3,000, so new annual pay is $63,000. The new price level is assumed to be 1.03 times the old one. $63,000 ÷ 1.03 = $61,165.0485 in old-period dollars. Real growth = (1.05 ÷ 1.03 − 1) × 100.
| Comparison | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual, nominal | $60,000.00 | $63,000.00 | $3,000.00 |
| Monthly average, nominal | $5,000.00 | $5,250.00 | $250.00 |
| Biweekly equivalent (26), nominal | $2,307.69 | $2,423.08 | $115.38 |
| Semimonthly equivalent (24), nominal | $2,500.00 | $2,625.00 | $125.00 |
| Annual, original-period purchasing power | $60,000.00 | $61,165.05 | $1,165.05 |
Result. The nominal raise is $3,000. In purchasing-power terms, the gain is $61,165.05 − $60,000 = $1,165.05, and real growth is 1.941748%. Subtracting 3% from 5% gives a rough 2%, but the exact ratio is a little lower.
What to check. The last row is not a second paycheck and not an after-tax amount. Each row rounds to cents on its own, so adding rounded per-check figures may not reproduce the annual number exactly.
The per-check rows divide the same annual pay by 26 or 24. Why the checks differ in size, and how that changes a monthly budget, is covered in biweekly vs. semimonthly pay.
How does a fixed hourly raise compare?
Inputs. Hypothetical example: $25 per hour for 2,000 paid hours a year, a fixed $2 hourly raise and a 0% price-change assumption.
Formula. Old annual pay = $25 × 2,000 = $50,000. New rate = $27, so new annual pay = $27 × 2,000 = $54,000.
Result. The raise is $4,000 a year, or 8%. With prices assumed flat, purchasing-power pay is also $54,000 and real growth is 8%.
What to check. A different price assumption leaves the nominal figures alone but changes the purchasing-power results. If your hours fall after the raise, this constant-hours comparison will overstate what you actually earn.
Why is the raise on your paycheck smaller than the calculator shows?
The CFPB’s paycheck lesson makes the key point: the amount you earn from a job is different from the amount you receive in your paycheck, because taxes and other deductions come out first. This calculator stops at gross pay.
Withholding, benefit premiums, retirement contributions, commissions and bonuses can all change what reaches your account. A raise that starts partway through a year also will not produce the full-year increase in that calendar year.
Overtime is separate. Under the federal rule, covered nonexempt employees get at least time and one-half their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. This constant-rate annualization does not add that premium; the overtime calculator models one workweek. For a wider job decision, compare job offers and living costs.
Which inflation number should you enter?
Any same-period estimate you trust. For a historical comparison, the BLS CPI Inflation Calculator uses the CPI-U U.S. city average for all items, not seasonally adjusted. Use its index values for the same start and end dates as your pay comparison.
As of September 28, 2026, BLS notes that it could not collect October 2025 CPI data because of a lapse in appropriations, so its calculator will not compute with that month. Pick different dates or another consistent index if your comparison touches October 2025.
BLS also says the CPI does not necessarily measure your own experience with price change. If rent or childcare dominates your budget, your personal inflation rate may differ from the national figure, so it can help to run a second scenario with your own estimate.
When does this raise calculator not fit?
- Your pay depends on commissions, tips or bonuses. Only a base salary or hourly rate is modeled.
- You need take-home pay. Taxes, withholding and benefit deductions are not calculated; check a pay stub or payroll estimate.
- Your hours or schedule change with the raise. The tool holds annual hours constant before and after.
- You are comparing a pay cut or deflation. Only nonnegative raises and price changes from 0% to 1,000% are accepted.
How the calculator handles inputs and rounding
- Percentage increase in the selected base unit = original base pay × percentage ÷ 100. Fixed increase = entered dollars in that unit.
- New annual gross = new salary, or new hourly rate × the same annual hours. Monthly, biweekly and semimonthly equivalents divide by 12, 26 and 24.
- New annual amount in original-period dollars = new annual gross ÷ (1 + same-period price change ÷ 100).
- Real pay growth = [(new base pay ÷ original base pay) ÷ (1 + same-period price change ÷ 100) − 1] × 100. The annual ratio is identical when before and after use the same positive hours.
If original base pay is zero, a percentage increase and real percentage growth are undefined; a fixed-dollar increase and the annual dollar comparison can still be displayed. Zero annual hours in hourly mode means zero annual earnings even if the rate rises.
A price change of −100% or less cannot be used as a divisor, so entered inflation is bounded to 0–1,000%. Displayed amounts round to cents and growth rates to six decimals. No entries are stored or transmitted.
Quick decision checklist
- Confirm whether the offer is a percentage, a new salary or a new hourly rate.
- Write down the old-pay and new-pay dates, then pick a price change for exactly that period.
- Check the effective date, since a mid-year raise adds less in the first calendar year.
- Compare the result with a pay stub or payroll estimate before budgeting the extra money.
Sources and review
- BLS CPI Inflation Calculator, for its CPI-U all-items, not-seasonally-adjusted basis and the October 2025 data gap notice.
- BLS CPI FAQ, for CPI percentage changes and why the CPI may not match an individual’s price experience.
- CFPB: Calculating the numbers in your paycheck, for the difference between earnings and the amount received after deductions.
- DOL: Overtime Pay, for the federal 40-hour workweek overtime framework.
Official sources rechecked in a browser on September 28, 2026. Calculation examples were rechecked by hand and against the calculator. This is educational, not individualized tax, employment-law or financial advice.
Prepared with AI-assisted research, drafting, and calculation checks. Not independently reviewed by a human financial professional.
