Salary Raise Calculator

How the Raise Calculator Works

Got a raise or preparing to ask for one? Enter your current salary and the percentage increase to see the new annual pay, the extra amount per paycheck and the equivalent hourly wage. All amounts are gross, meaning before taxes and deductions. To see what actually lands in your bank account, run the new salary through our paycheck calculator.

Is Your Raise Keeping Up With Inflation?

A raise that is smaller than the inflation rate is effectively a pay cut in buying power. Compare your raise percentage with recent inflation, and remember that changing jobs often produces larger increases than annual cost-of-living adjustments. Read our guide on how to negotiate a raise.

Example: A 4% Raise on $65,000

A 4% raise takes $65,000 to $67,600, an increase of $2,600 a year, or roughly $100 more per biweekly paycheck before taxes. The hourly equivalent goes from about $31.25 to $32.50. After federal, state and FICA taxes the extra take-home may be around $75 to $80 per check.

How to Read Your Results

The new salary, per-paycheck and hourly numbers are all gross. Use them to compare offers or check whether a raise beats inflation. To see what lands in your account, run the new salary through the paycheck calculator.

Using the Result in a Negotiation

• Convert your target percentage into annual dollars for clarity.
• Compare it with current market pay for your role.
• Prepare a fallback, such as a bonus or an earlier review date.

How the Raise Calculator Works

The calculator multiplies your current salary by (1 + raise percentage) to find the new salary. It subtracts the old salary to show the yearly increase, then divides by your number of pay periods to show the gross change per paycheck. Monthly pay is annual pay ÷ 12, and hourly pay assumes 2,080 hours, which is 40 hours for 52 weeks. All figures are before taxes and deductions. To see your take-home pay, use the paycheck calculator.

What Different Raise Percentages Mean in Dollars

A 3% raise often matches inflation in a typical year, while 5% to 10% usually reflects a promotion, strong performance or a move to a new employer. The dollars differ widely by salary, so calculate your own raise rather than relying on the percentage alone.

Step-by-Step: Evaluate a Raise or Offer

1. Enter your current annual salary and the raise percentage you were offered or plan to request.
2. Choose your pay frequency to see the gross increase per check.
3. Compare the new hourly rate with market rates for your role.
4. Run the new salary through the paycheck calculator to see the after-tax effect.
5. Compare the raise with inflation using the inflation calculator.
6. Decide whether to accept, counter or negotiate other benefits. See how to negotiate a raise.

Why a raise percentage doesn't equal a take-home pay increase of the same percentage

When you get a percentage raise, your gross pay increases by exactly that percentage, but your take-home pay usually increases by a slightly smaller percentage, since a portion of the raise is absorbed by additional income tax and FICA withholding, especially if the raise pushes any part of your income into a higher marginal tax bracket.

This is a common source of confusion when negotiating: a 5% raise sounds like a straightforward 5% boost to your paycheck, but the real increase in what lands in your bank account is typically a bit less once taxes on the additional income are accounted for.

Comparing raises against inflation and market rates

A raise that doesn't at least keep pace with inflation represents a real pay cut in terms of purchasing power, even though the nominal paycheck number went up, so it's worth comparing any raise percentage against the current inflation rate to understand its true impact.

It's also worth researching typical market raises for your role, industry, and experience level (using sources like salary surveys or sites that aggregate compensation data) so you have a benchmark for whether an offered raise is competitive or below what similar professionals are receiving elsewhere.

Using a raise calculator before a negotiation

Before a performance review or salary negotiation, it can help to calculate what different raise percentages would mean for your actual take-home pay, so you walk into the conversation with a clear target number rather than just a vague percentage in mind.

This is especially useful if you're negotiating a lump-sum bonus versus an ongoing salary increase, since a raise compounds every year going forward (affecting future raises, retirement contributions calculated as a percentage of salary, and other benefits), while a one-time bonus does not carry forward in the same way.

Raises and the benefits that scale with them

A raise doesn't just affect your paycheck; it can also increase the dollar value of benefits calculated as a percentage of salary, such as employer 401(k) matching contributions, employer-paid life insurance coverage set at a multiple of salary, and short or long-term disability benefits that are often calculated as a percentage of your income.

On the other hand, if you're close to an income threshold for a specific benefit or subsidy, such as a marketplace health insurance premium tax credit, a raise could reduce or eliminate that benefit, so it's worth checking any income-based thresholds that might apply to your situation before assuming a raise is purely additive.

Retroactive raises and back pay

Sometimes a raise is approved after your annual review date but isn't reflected in payroll until a later pay period, resulting in a retroactive or back-pay adjustment covering the gap. This back pay is usually taxed as supplemental wages, similar to a bonus, which means it may be withheld at a flat rate rather than your normal marginal rate for that single payment.

If you receive a retroactive raise as a lump sum, don't be surprised if the withholding on that specific payment looks different from your regular paycheck; it typically reconciles correctly when you file your annual tax return, since your total annual withholding is what ultimately matters.

How Taxes Change the Value of a Raise

Because raises are taxed at your marginal rate, the take-home increase is smaller than the gross increase. In the 22% federal bracket with 7.65% payroll taxes and a 5% state tax, roughly 65% of each extra dollar stays with you. A $5,000 raise might add about $3,250 per year, or $125 per biweekly paycheck. If you contribute to a 401(k), part of the raise can go into your retirement account instead of your paycheck. Learn about marginal rates in effective vs marginal tax rate.

Raise vs Bonus vs Promotion

A raise increases your base pay permanently, so it also raises future raises, overtime rates and, in some cases, retirement contributions. A bonus is a one-time payment taxed as supplemental wages; see bonus tax explained. A promotion usually combines a raise with new responsibilities. When negotiating, compare all three: sometimes a smaller raise with a title change and a review date has more long-term value.

Salary Raise results at a glance

These are the calculator's results at different values of current Annual Salary, with every other input left at the example values above (the bold row is the example). Use them to see how quickly the result changes before entering your own numbers.

How pay Frequency changes the result

The same example with each pay Frequency option:

What changing raise does

Holding everything else at the example values, here is the effect of raise:

Raises in dollars at common salaries

These are gross amounts. After federal tax and FICA, most workers keep about 70% to 80% of a raise, less in states with income tax.