Salary Increase Calculator

Subtract your old salary from your new salary, divide the result by your OLD salary, then multiply by 100. Example: $58,000 to $62,060 is a $4,060 increase; $4,060 / $58,000 x 100 = 7.0%. The old salary is always the denominator. Dividing by the new salary is the single most common mistake and always understates the raise.

Use gross pay -- the figure before tax and deductions. That is the number quoted in offers and review letters, and it is the one the percentage is normally expressed against. Your take-home increase will be a smaller percentage than your gross increase, because part of the extra income is withheld and, if the raise pushes income across a bracket threshold, part of it is taxed at a higher marginal rate.

It means your pay went up in nominal terms but down in real terms: the money buys less than your old salary did. This is often called a real pay cut. Enter an inflation rate in the optional field and the calculator reports the real, inflation-adjusted change alongside the headline figure.

Exactly the same way -- the formula does not care about the unit. A change from $22.00/hr to $24.20/hr is ($24.20 - $22.00) / $22.00 x 100 = 10%. Set the pay period to "Per hour" so the labels and dollar amounts match what you entered.

Multiply the growth factors; do not add the percentages. A 4% raise followed by a 3% raise is 1.04 x 1.03 = 1.0712, which is a 7.12% total increase -- not 7%. The gap widens as the percentages get larger, because each raise is applied to a base that already includes the previous one.

Because a percentage is always relative to its base. A 5% raise is $2,250 on a $45,000 salary and $6,000 on a $120,000 salary. The percentage is identical; the purchasing power it adds is not. When comparing offers, look at both the percentage and the dollar amount -- they answer different questions.

A percentage frames the ask as measured and benchmarkable, which helps when you are pointing to market data or your own raise history. A dollar figure feels more concrete and can land harder on a large salary. Many people calculate both before a conversation and lead with whichever number better supports their case.