Salary Increase Calculator

The calculator multiplies your current pay by 1 + raise ÷ 100. With the default inputs, an 8% raise on $60,000 gives a new salary of $64,800, an increase of $4,800 a year, and $5,400 a month (the monthly line simply divides the annual figure by 12).

Most people see their pay per paycheck, so here is the same raise by pay schedule:

These are gross figures. Your take-home increase will be smaller, because income tax and any percentage-based deductions grow with your pay. If you are paid by the hour, enter your hourly rate instead: $25 an hour with an 8% raise becomes $27. In that case ignore the monthly line, which assumes an annual figure.

A raise quoted in dollars and one quoted as a percentage are easy to compare once you convert: divide the dollar amount by your current salary. A flat $5,000 raise on $60,000 is 8.33%, slightly better than an 8% raise ($4,800).

The same percentage is worth more on a higher base. On $85,000, a 4% raise adds $3,400 and a 6% raise adds $5,100. That gap carries forward, because every later raise is calculated on the new, higher salary. Two percentage points this year can matter more than they look.

Raises compound. Three years of 5% raises on $60,000 take you to $63,000, then $66,150, then $69,457.50: a total increase of 15.76%, not 15%. To project several years, run the calculator once per year and feed each new salary back in as the current salary.

What matters for your budget is the raise after inflation. A quick way to estimate it is (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. Say prices rose 3% over the year: an 8% raise is a real increase of about 4.85%. Now say you got 3% while prices rose 4%: your real pay fell by about 0.96%, and your new $61,800 buys roughly what $59,423 bought a year earlier. Use the official inflation figure for your own country and period when you do this.

• Know both forms. Have the request ready as a percentage and as an annual dollar amount. "$4,800, which is 8%" is concrete and easy to approve or counter.
• Anchor on the role, not on averages. Base your number on what comparable roles pay, from job postings, offers you have received and salary surveys for your field and location. A generic typical-raise figure says little about your job.
• Check the effective date. An 8% raise that starts on July 1 adds only $2,400 to this calendar year's pay, half the annual $4,800.
• Count what moves with base pay. If you have a bonus target of 10% of base, it rises from $6,000 to $6,480 with the raise above. Retirement matches set as a percentage of pay grow the same way.