Pay Raise Calculator
Pay raise calculator — enter your current pay and a raise as a percentage or an amount to see your new salary and the increase, plus the real raise after inflation so you know whether your buying power actually rises. In your choice of currency. Runs in your browser.
Pay Raise Calculator
How to Use the Pay Raise Calculator
Enter your current pay
Type your current monthly or annual pay and pick the period and currency.
Add the raise
Enter the raise as a percentage or as a cash amount — whichever matches your offer.
Set inflation
Enter the inflation rate to see the real raise — the change in your actual buying power.
Read the verdict
See your new pay, the increase, and whether the raise genuinely beats inflation.
What Your Pay Raise Is Really Worth
A pay raise feels unambiguously good — a bigger number on the payslip — but the headline figure can be deceptive, and this calculator exists to show you what the raise is really worth. The simple part is the new pay itself: your current pay multiplied by one plus the raise, whether you express that raise as a percentage or as a cash amount. The tool handles both, converting an amount into a percentage when you need it, and shows the size of the increase. But the number that actually matters is the one most people never calculate: the real raise, your change in buying power after inflation has taken its cut.
The reason is that money is only worth what it can buy. If your pay rises by three per cent in a year when prices also rise by three per cent, you can purchase exactly what you could before — you are running to stand still. If your raise comes in below inflation, you have received a bigger payslip and a smaller standard of living at the same time, which is a real-terms pay cut however good the percentage looks. The calculator makes this explicit by computing the real raise — one plus your raise divided by one plus inflation, minus one — and telling you plainly whether your buying power has risen, stalled or fallen. A five per cent raise against three per cent inflation, for instance, is only about a 1.9 per cent gain in real terms, not the five it appears to be.
Seeing the distinction changes how you think about pay over a career. Raises compound, each one applied to a base that already includes the last, so modest increases snowball over decades — and because every percentage raise is taken on your current base, negotiating a higher starting salary quietly lifts every future raise too. It also reframes common choices: a recurring base raise is almost always worth more than a one-off bonus of the same headline value, because the raise repeats and compounds while the bonus does not; and a cost-of-living adjustment that merely matches inflation is not really a raise at all, just a hold on your standard of living. The figures here are gross, before tax, so your take-home increase will be a little smaller — pair this with a take-home pay calculator for the net picture. Everything is computed in your browser, so nothing you enter leaves your device.
If your raise doesn’t beat inflation, your payslip grew but your life got smaller — the real raise is the only number that counts.
10 Facts About Pay Raises
A raise below inflation is a real-terms pay cut.
Real raise ≈ nominal raise − inflation (roughly).
Compounding small raises adds up fast over a career.
A promotion raise usually beats an annual increment.
Bonuses are one-off; a base raise compounds.
Negotiating off a higher base lifts every future raise.
Cost-of-living adjustments aim to match inflation.
Merit raises reward performance on top of COLA.
Switching jobs often beats internal raises for pay growth.
This calculator runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Your new pay is your current pay multiplied by one plus the raise percentage. If you enter the raise as a cash amount instead, the tool converts it to a percentage by dividing the amount by your current pay. Either way it shows your new pay and the size of the increase.
- A real raise is your raise after accounting for inflation — the change in your actual buying power, not just the number on your payslip. The tool computes it as one plus your raise, divided by one plus inflation, minus one. A 5% raise with 3% inflation is only about a 1.9% real raise, because prices rose too.
- Because money is only worth what it can buy. If your pay rises 3% but prices also rise 3%, you can buy exactly what you could before — you are no better off. If your raise is below inflation, you are actually worse off despite a bigger number on your payslip. That is why the real raise is the figure that matters.
- Whichever you know. If your employer offered “a 4% raise”, use percentage; if they offered “an extra $300 a month”, use the amount and the tool works out the percentage. Both give the same new pay; the choice is just about matching how the offer was framed.
- They are gross, meaning before tax and deductions. A raise also pushes more income through the tax system, so your take-home increase will be a little smaller than the gross increase shown here. Use a take-home pay calculator to see the net effect for your tax situation.
- Raises compound: each one is applied to a base that already includes previous raises, so modest annual increases snowball over a career. Crucially, negotiating a higher starting base lifts every future percentage raise too, which is why early salary decisions matter more than they first appear.
- Usually not, pound for pound. A bonus is a one-off payment, while a raise to your base salary recurs every year and compounds with future raises, pension contributions and overtime rates. A permanent raise of the same headline value is almost always worth more over time than a single bonus.
- A cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is a raise intended simply to keep your pay in step with inflation, leaving your buying power unchanged. A merit raise is anything on top of that, reflecting performance or a bigger role. The real-raise figure here tells you how much of your raise, if any, is genuine growth beyond cost of living.
- Yes. Enter your hourly rate as the current pay; the percentages and real-raise logic are identical regardless of whether the figure is hourly, monthly or annual. Just keep the period consistent so the new-pay figure means what you expect.
- Completely free, with no account or usage limit. It runs entirely in your browser, collects no data, and works offline once the page has loaded.
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