Salary Increase Calculator

What the Calculator Does

A raise can be quoted as a percentage ("a 5% increase"), as an amount ("$2 more an hour") or as a new figure ("your salary is now $64,500"). This salary increase calculator, also called a salary hike calculator or hike calculator, converts between all three. It also restates the result for every common pay period, from hourly to annual, so you can compare an hourly offer with a salaried one.

How to Use It

Enter your current pay and choose the period it is quoted in. Enter the raise and pick % or $; a dollar raise is read in the same period as your salary, so $2 with an hourly wage means $2 more per hour. Hours per week and weeks per year convert between hourly and salaried figures: 40 hours and 52 weeks give the standard 2,080 paid hours a year.

The inflation rate lets you see the raise in purchasing power. Use the latest year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or your own estimate.

Salary Increase Formula

To apply a percentage raise, multiply your salary by one plus the percentage as a decimal. With the defaults, $60,000 × 1.05 = $63,000, a $3,000 increase. Hourly, that is $60,000 ÷ 2,080 = $28.85 rising to $30.29.

To find the percentage from two salaries, divide the difference by the old salary. Going from $60,000 to $64,500 is $4,500 ÷ $60,000 = 7.5%.

To adjust for inflation, divide one plus the raise by one plus inflation. A 5% raise with 3% inflation is 1.05 ÷ 1.03 − 1 = 1.94% in real terms: you can buy about 2% more than last year, not 5%.

New salary = S × (1 + p ÷ 100) p = (New − Old) ÷ Old × 100

S

current salary

p

raise percentage

Real raise = (1 + p ÷ 100) ÷ (1 + inflation ÷ 100) − 1. Hourly pay = annual pay ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year).

How Big Is a Typical Raise?

Raises vary by employer, industry and performance, and with the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks wage growth across the U.S. economy through the Employment Cost Index, which is a useful benchmark for whether your raise keeps pace with pay in general. Changing employers has often produced larger increases than staying, which is one reason to know your market rate before a review.

Compounding matters for raises too. Two people starting at $60,000, one getting 3% a year and the other 5%, are about $17,000 a year apart after ten years: $80,635 versus $97,734.

Tips for Negotiating a Raise

• Research pay for your role and location before the conversation, using salary surveys and job postings.
• Bring specifics: projects delivered, revenue earned or costs saved, and new responsibilities taken on.
• Ask for a specific figure or percentage, slightly above what you would accept.
• Consider the whole package. Bonus, retirement match, extra vacation or remote work can be worth more than a small base increase.
• Check the after-tax change. A raise adds to your taxable income, so your take-home pay rises by less than the gross amount.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• BLS – Employment Cost Index
• BLS – Consumer Price Index