№ 061 · Income & taxes cluster
Pay Raise Calculator
A raise is worth more than this year’s number. See your new salary and what the raise adds to every paycheck, whether it really beats inflation — and, because every later raise is a percentage of a bigger base, what it adds up to over the rest of your career.
New salary · real raise · career value
See what the raise does to your paycheck after tax with the Take-Home Pay Calculator, or the new salary as an hourly rate with the Salary to Hourly Calculator. A raise is also the easiest moment to save more: the 401(k) Calculator shows what a bigger contribution grows to, and the Savings Goal Calculator how fast the extra pay reaches a target. To see how prices have moved over any span, try the Inflation Calculator.
Your pay01
$
%
Inflation02
%
Your career03
yr
%
New salary · per year
$63,000.00
$2,423.08 per biweekly paycheck · $5,250.00 a month · before tax
+5.00% · +$3,000.00 a yearBeats 2.63% inflation by 2.31%
Raise per year+$3,000.00+5.00% of your salary
Raise per month+$250.00
Raise per paycheck+$115.38biweekly · 26 a year
Real raise+2.31%+$1,385.56/yr in today’s $
Career value
This raise over 30 years
$142,726.25
With 3% raises a year after this one — versus $90,000.00 if it never grew.
+$52,726.25 from later raisesAdds $7,069.70 in year 30
- With future raises$142,726.25
- If it never grew$90,000.00
| Year 0 | with future raises $0.00, if it never grew $0.00 |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | with future raises $3,000.00, if it never grew $3,000.00 |
| Year 2 | with future raises $6,090.00, if it never grew $6,000.00 |
| Year 3 | with future raises $9,272.70, if it never grew $9,000.00 |
| Year 4 | with future raises $12,550.88, if it never grew $12,000.00 |
| Year 5 | with future raises $15,927.41, if it never grew $15,000.00 |
| Year 6 | with future raises $19,405.23, if it never grew $18,000.00 |
| Year 7 | with future raises $22,987.39, if it never grew $21,000.00 |
| Year 8 | with future raises $26,677.01, if it never grew $24,000.00 |
| Year 9 | with future raises $30,477.32, if it never grew $27,000.00 |
| Year 10 | with future raises $34,391.64, if it never grew $30,000.00 |
| Year 11 | with future raises $38,423.39, if it never grew $33,000.00 |
| Year 12 | with future raises $42,576.09, if it never grew $36,000.00 |
| Year 13 | with future raises $46,853.37, if it never grew $39,000.00 |
| Year 14 | with future raises $51,258.97, if it never grew $42,000.00 |
| Year 15 | with future raises $55,796.74, if it never grew $45,000.00 |
| Year 16 | with future raises $60,470.64, if it never grew $48,000.00 |
| Year 17 | with future raises $65,284.76, if it never grew $51,000.00 |
| Year 18 | with future raises $70,243.31, if it never grew $54,000.00 |
| Year 19 | with future raises $75,350.61, if it never grew $57,000.00 |
| Year 20 | with future raises $80,611.12, if it never grew $60,000.00 |
| Year 21 | with future raises $86,029.46, if it never grew $63,000.00 |
| Year 22 | with future raises $91,610.34, if it never grew $66,000.00 |
| Year 23 | with future raises $97,358.65, if it never grew $69,000.00 |
| Year 24 | with future raises $103,279.41, if it never grew $72,000.00 |
| Year 25 | with future raises $109,377.79, if it never grew $75,000.00 |
| Year 26 | with future raises $115,659.13, if it never grew $78,000.00 |
| Year 27 | with future raises $122,128.90, if it never grew $81,000.00 |
| Year 28 | with future raises $128,792.77, if it never grew $84,000.00 |
| Year 29 | with future raises $135,656.55, if it never grew $87,000.00 |
| Year 30 | with future raises $142,726.25, if it never grew $90,000.00 |
Each later raise is a percentage of a salary that already includes this one, so the raise itself gets raised: $3,000.00 in year 1 grows to $7,069.70 by year 30. Gross pay — before tax, and not adjusted for inflation.
Year by year
| Year | Salary | Raise adds | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $63,000.00 | $3,000.00 | $3,000.00 |
| 5 | $70,907.06 | $3,376.53 | $15,927.41 |
| 10 | $82,200.71 | $3,914.32 | $34,391.64 |
| 15 | $95,293.15 | $4,537.77 | $55,796.74 |
| 20 | $110,470.88 | $5,260.52 | $80,611.12 |
| 25 | $128,066.03 | $6,098.38 | $109,377.79 |
| 30 | $148,463.63 | $7,069.70 | $142,726.25 |
How it works · methodology
The math, in the open.
raise = salary × raise % (or the $ you enter)
new salary = salary + raise
per paycheck = raise ÷ paychecks a year (52 · 26 · 24 · 12)
real raise = (1 + raise %) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1
career value = raise × ((1 + g)^N − 1) ÷ g
= raise × N when g = 0- salary
- Current gross annual salary
- raise %
- The raise as a share of the current salary
- inflation
- Annual inflation — by default the latest full-year CPI-U change (2024 → 2025)
- g
- The raise expected in each later year
- N
- Years the raise is followed for
Assumptions & limits
- Gross pay only — federal and state income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and pre-tax deductions are not modeled, so every figure, including the per-paycheck raise, is before tax.
- The default inflation rate is the change in the BLS CPI-U annual average from 2024 to 2025 (2.63%). Your own costs, or the CPI over the twelve months your raise covers, may differ — edit it.
- Later raises are a steady percentage of the whole salary each year, so this raise grows with them. Real careers mix merit raises, promotions, job changes, and flat years.
- The career value adds up nominal dollars: it is not discounted, not adjusted for inflation, and assumes none of the extra pay is invested.
- Paychecks per year: weekly 52, biweekly 26, semi-monthly 24, monthly 12. The occasional year with a 27th biweekly (or 53rd weekly) payday is ignored.
Sources
By the MintNumber Editorial Team·Reviewed
Frequently asked
Questions about pay raises
What is a typical pay raise?
Raise budgets at most U.S. employers run around 3% to 4% a year, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index — the government’s broadest gauge of pay — shows wages and salaries cooling from growth of more than 5% a year in 2022 to roughly 3.5% to 4% more recently. So a 3% raise is about average for staying in the same job, 5% or more is a strong merit raise, and jumps of 10% or more usually come with a promotion or a new employer. What matters most is how your raise compares with inflation, and with what your skills would earn elsewhere.
How do I know if my raise beats inflation?
Compare it with the rise in consumer prices over the same stretch. The exact test is the real raise: (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. A 5% raise against 3% inflation is a 1.94% real raise — close to the 2% you get by subtracting, but the shortcut drifts further off as rates climb. Above zero, your purchasing power grows; below zero, the raise is a pay cut in disguise. The calculator starts from the latest full-year change in the BLS CPI-U (2.63% for 2025); if your raise covers a different twelve months, enter the CPI change for that period instead.
Why does a raise compound over a career?
Because later raises are usually a percentage of your whole salary — this raise included. With 3% raises a year, a $3,000 raise becomes $3,090 the next year, $3,182.70 the year after, and about $7,070 by year 30, adding up to roughly $142,726 over three decades instead of the $90,000 it would be if it never grew. It reaches beyond the paycheck too: 401(k) contributions and employer matches set as a percentage of pay grow with it, and your salary is the base the next offer is measured against. That is why negotiating an extra point now is worth far more than one point of one year’s pay.
Is a raise better than a promotion or a job switch?
They are different tools. A merit raise keeps you in the same role and typically runs a few percent; a promotion usually brings a bigger jump along with new responsibilities. Changing employers has historically paid the most: the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Wage Growth Tracker shows people who switch jobs usually see faster pay growth than people who stay, with the gap widest in tight labor markets such as 2022. To compare options, enter each one as a raise on your current salary and look at the career value — then weigh benefits, vesting schedules, commute, and stability, which this calculator does not price.
What is the difference between a cost-of-living adjustment and a merit raise?
A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is an across-the-board increase meant to keep pay level with prices — Social Security’s annual COLA, for example, is set from the CPI-W, a close cousin of the CPI-U used here. A merit raise rewards performance and is meant to lift your pay in real terms. Many private employers fold the two into one annual increase, so it helps to split yours: the part up to inflation is effectively the COLA, and anything above it — the real raise this calculator shows — is the true merit increase.
Is the per-paycheck raise before or after tax?
Before tax. Every figure here is gross pay. The increase you see in your take-home pay is smaller: federal income tax at your marginal rate, state and local tax where they apply, and 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare (the 6.2% Social Security part stops at the annual wage base) all come out first, as do pre-tax deductions such as 401(k) contributions — which, if they are a percentage of pay, rise with the raise. To see what the raise does to your actual paycheck, run the old and new salaries through the Take-Home Pay Calculator. Biweekly pay means 26 paychecks a year (occasionally 27); semi-monthly means 24, on two fixed dates a month.