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Raise calculator

Enter your current pay and your raise as a percentage or an amount to see your new hourly rate, salary and paycheck. Already know your new pay? Switch modes to find the raise percentage and compare it with inflation.

Calculate
Pay entered as

Turns the hourly rate into yearly pay.

Price rises over the same period, e.g. the yearly change in the Consumer Price Index.

New pay
$26.00 an hour
A 4% raise: +$2,080 a year, +$1.00 an hour, before tax.

New pay and how much more

PeriodNew payIncrease
Per hour$26.00+$1.00
Every two weeks$2,080.00+$80.00
Per month$4,506.67+$173.33
Per year$54,080.00+$2,080.00

Before tax, at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. "Every two weeks" is one of 26 paychecks a year.

  • Nothing is uploaded
  • Free, no sign-up
  • Works on phone and desktop

How to calculate a pay raise

  1. 1

    Choose how to enter the raise: By percent, By amount, or Find the % if you already know your new pay.

  2. 2

    Pick Hourly or Yearly, then enter your current pay.

  3. 3

    Enter the raise, or your new pay. Check the hours per week so hourly and yearly pay convert correctly.

  4. 4

    Add an inflation rate to see your real raise, then copy the result or a link to it.

Features

  • Three ways in

    Raise by a percentage, raise by a dollar amount, or work out the percentage from your old and new pay.

  • Hourly or yearly

    Enter an hourly wage or a salary. The other one is worked out from your hours per week.

  • Every paycheck

    See the new pay and the increase per hour, per paycheck every two weeks, per month and per year.

  • Real raise after inflation

    Add the inflation rate for the same period to see whether your pay really buys more than before.

The raise formulas

Three small formulas cover almost every raise question:

  • New pay from a percentage: current pay × (1 + raise ÷ 100). A 5% raise on $24 an hour is $24 × 1.05 = $25.20.
  • Percentage from a dollar raise: raise ÷ current pay × 100. A $1.50 raise on $25 an hour is 6%.
  • Percentage from old and new pay: (new − old) ÷ old × 100. Going from $62,000 to $65,000 is a 4.84% raise.

A percentage raise is the same percentage whether you look at your hourly rate, your paycheck or your yearly salary. A dollar raise isn't: $1 more an hour is $2,080 more a year at 40 hours a week, but only $1,040 at 20 hours. That's why the calculator asks for your hours.

What a raise adds over a year

The yearly increase for common salaries and raise sizes, before tax:

Salary2%3%4%5%10%
$35,000$700$1,050$1,400$1,750$3,500
$45,000$900$1,350$1,800$2,250$4,500
$55,000$1,100$1,650$2,200$2,750$5,500
$65,000$1,300$1,950$2,600$3,250$6,500
$80,000$1,600$2,400$3,200$4,000$8,000
$100,000$2,000$3,000$4,000$5,000$10,000

Divide by 12 for the monthly difference or by 26 for each biweekly paycheck. A 3% raise on $55,000 is $1,650 a year, which is $137.50 a month or about $63.46 a paycheck.

Raises and inflation

A raise only makes you better off if your pay grows faster than prices. The way to check is the real raise: (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. With a 5% raise and 3% inflation, that's 1.05 ÷ 1.03 − 1 = 1.94%. Simply subtracting (5% − 3% = 2%) is close for small numbers, but the division is the exact answer.

For the inflation rate, use the change in prices over the same period as your raise, usually 12 months. In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Consumer Price Index (CPI) every month, including the change over the past year. Your own costs may rise faster or slower than the national average, depending on where you live and what you spend most on.

Before tax, and what to compare

All figures here are gross pay. Your take-home increase will be smaller once income tax, Social Security and Medicare come out, and a raise can also change how much goes into a retirement plan set as a percentage of pay. Still, a raise never lowers your take-home pay through tax brackets, because higher rates apply only to income above each threshold.

Weighing a job offer instead of a raise? The hourly to salary calculator converts the offer into the same terms as your current pay, including unpaid time off. If your raise comes with more hours, the overtime calculator shows what the extra time is worth, and the time card calculator adds up a week of shifts.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate a raise percentage?

Subtract your old pay from your new pay, divide by your old pay and multiply by 100. Going from $20 to $21.50 an hour: $1.50 ÷ $20 × 100 = 7.5%. It works the same for salaries: $55,000 to $58,000 is $3,000 ÷ $55,000 = 5.45%.

How much is a 3% raise on $50,000?

$1,500 a year, so your new salary is $51,500. That is $125 more a month, or about $57.69 more in each of 26 biweekly paychecks, before tax.

How much is a $1 an hour raise in a year?

$2,080 a year if you work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, or $1,950 at 37.5 hours a week. A $2 raise doubles that: $4,160 at 40 hours.

What is a real raise?

It's your raise after inflation: how much more your pay can actually buy. Divide (1 + raise) by (1 + inflation) and subtract 1. A 4% raise with 3% inflation is a real raise of about 0.97%. If inflation is higher than your raise, your pay buys less than before.

Is a cost-of-living adjustment the same as a raise?

A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is a raise meant to keep your pay in step with prices, so its real value is close to zero. A merit raise or promotion is usually on top of that. Ask your employer which one you're getting.

Can a raise push me into a higher tax bracket and lower my take-home pay?

Not through federal income tax brackets. Higher rates apply only to the part of your income above each bracket threshold, so a raise always adds to your take-home pay. A big raise can reduce income-based benefits or credits, though, so check those if they apply to you.

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