Salary Increase Calculator
See what your raise is really worth — per paycheck, after tax, and after inflation. Most calculators stop at the new salary. That’s the least useful number they could give you.
Updated July 2026 · Inflation rate 3.0% · All math runs in your browser
No account, no email wall
Every figure computed in your browser
See it before and after tax
Know if it is a real raise
How a salary increase is calculated
The arithmetic is simple, which is exactly why it isn’t the interesting part. To find your new pay, multiply your current pay by the raise percentage and add it back:
New pay = Current pay × (1 + raise ÷ 100)
A 5% raise on $60,000:
- Raise amount: $60,000 × 0.05 = $3,000
- New salary: $60,000 + $3,000 = $63,000
Every calculator on the internet will hand you that $63,000 and stop. Which leaves you holding a number that doesn’t answer the question you actually walked in with.
What your raise is worth in a real paycheck
Nobody spends an annual salary. You spend the deposit that lands every second Friday. That $3,000 raise, across a normal pay schedule:
| You are paid | Checks / yr | Extra per check |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | $57.69 |
| Every two weeks | 26 | $115.38 |
| Twice a month | 24 | $125.00 |
| Monthly | 12 | $250.00 |
This is the number people are looking for when they search for a salary increase calculator, and almost nobody gives it to them. A $3,000 raise sounds like a holiday. $115 a fortnight sounds like a grocery run. Both are the same money.
Then tax takes its cut. At a 25% effective rate — federal, state, Social Security and Medicare combined, roughly where most US employees land — that $115.38 arrives as about $86.54. The calculator shows both, and you can set your own rate to match your pay stub.
That gap between what you were told and what shows up is where most of the disappointment lives. Better to see it before the check does.
Your real raise, after inflation
A raise on paper is a nominal raise. What you can actually buy with it is a real raise. Inflation is the gap between them, and if your raise doesn’t clear inflation, your salary went up while your standard of living quietly went down.
Most people work this out by subtracting: 3% raise minus 3.4% inflation, call it −0.4%, done. Close, but not right. The correct relationship is a ratio:
Real raise = ((1 + raise ÷ 100) ÷ (1 + inflation ÷ 100) − 1) × 100
Run a 3% raise against 3.4% inflation and you get −0.39%. On a $60,000 salary, you are about $232 a year worse off than before you got a raise.
That isn’t a rhetorical flourish. It’s the arithmetic. And it’s why “we’re doing 3% across the board this year” is a sentence worth sitting with rather than saying thank you to. The calculator turns that figure red the moment your raise drops below inflation, because it’s the single most useful thing it can tell you.
What counts as a good raise
Rough US benchmarks, so you have something to measure against instead of a feeling:
| Situation | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Standard merit increase | 3–5% |
| Strong performance review | 5–8% |
| Promotion | 10–20% |
| Changing employers | 10–25% |
| Below the current inflation rate | A pay cut |
Two things fall out of that table.
The first is that a title change without a double-digit raise is a title change, not a promotion. If your responsibilities went up and your pay went up 4%, you were given a compliment and a workload.
The second is uncomfortable and well documented: the premium for switching employers has historically run well above the premium for staying loyal to one. Which is how people end up earning less than the person hired last month to do their job. Nobody will tell you this in your review.
Working out what to ask for
Most people run this backwards. They wait to be handed a percentage, then react to it. That’s a weak position, and a solvable one.
Start from the number you actually want and work out the percentage that gets you there. Switch the calculator to “What should I ask for?”, enter your current pay and your target, and it solves for the ask.
Say you earn $70,000 and you want $85,000. That’s 21.4% — and knowing that before you walk into the room tells you something straight away. That is not a merit-review conversation. That’s a promotion, a market adjustment, or a new job. Three very different conversations, and you want to know which one you’re in before you’re in it.
Under 5%, you’re asking for a normal raise and you should ask plainly. Over 15%, no amount of good performance framing will carry it, and you need a structural reason: a new title, a competing offer, or a documented gap against market rate.
Why your raise looked smaller than you expected
Two things explain almost all of it.
You compared an annual number to a per-paycheck number. You were told $3,000. You received $115. Same money, different unit, and the smaller unit is the one that hits your account.
You think a tax bracket ate it. It didn’t. The US tax system is progressive, which means a higher rate applies only to the dollars above each threshold — never to your whole salary. Crossing a bracket line cannot leave you with less money than before. A raise always increases your take-home pay. Always.
This myth is expensive. Every year people hesitate over raises, turn down overtime and refuse bonuses because they believe a bracket will punish them for earning more. It won’t. It can’t. The arithmetic doesn’t work that way.
What does shrink your raise, legitimately:
- Your withholding percentage rises with income, so a larger slice comes off the top of each check.
- Your 401(k) is a percentage, so it quietly takes a bigger absolute bite from a bigger salary. That money is still yours — it just isn’t spendable this week.
- Social Security keeps applying until you clear the annual wage base.
- Health premiums may be salary-banded at some employers.
All of that is real and worth checking on your stub. The bracket panic is not.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a salary increase?
Multiply your current salary by the raise percentage divided by 100, then add it back. A 5% raise on $60,000 is $60,000 × 0.05 = $3,000, giving a new salary of $63,000. The formula is: New Pay = Old Pay × (1 + percent ÷ 100).
How much will a 5% raise add to each paycheck?
Divide the annual raise by your number of pay periods — 52 weekly, 26 every two weeks, 24 twice a month, 12 monthly. A $3,000 raise paid every two weeks adds $115.38 per gross paycheck. After tax at a typical 25% effective rate, expect roughly $86.54 to actually reach your account.
What is a real raise versus a nominal raise?
A nominal raise is the percentage on paper. A real raise is what survives inflation. The correct calculation is a ratio, not a subtraction: a 3% raise against 3.4% inflation is a real change of −0.39%, meaning your purchasing power fell even though your salary rose.
What is a good pay raise in 2026?
Standard merit increases run 3–5%. Strong performance gets 5–8%. A promotion should carry 10–20%. Changing employers has historically paid a 10–25% premium. Any raise below the current inflation rate is a pay cut in real terms.
Will a raise push me into a higher tax bracket and cost me money?
No. US tax brackets are progressive, so the higher rate applies only to income above each threshold, never to your entire salary. A raise always leaves you with more take-home pay than before. It is not possible to lose money by earning more.
How do I decide what raise to ask for?
Start from the salary you want, not the percentage you would accept. Use the “What should I ask for?” mode — enter your current pay and your target, and it returns the percentage. Under 5% is a normal merit ask. Over 15% needs a structural reason: a new title, a competing offer, or a documented market gap.
Is this calculator free? Do I need to sign up?
Free, no account, no email, no data collected. All the math runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
How this calculator works. Everything here is arithmetic you could do with a pen. There is no black box and no data leaves your device. Gross figures come straight from the formulas above. The after-tax line applies the effective rate you set (25% by default) and is an estimate, not a payroll calculation. Full formulas and sources are on the methodology page.