See your new salary and the annual, monthly and weekly increase — plus what's left after inflation.
New salary
$73,500
A 5% raise.
That's a 5% raise, adding $3,500 a year: about $292 more a month, or $135 per biweekly paycheck. Before taxes, of course — your take-home increase will be somewhat less once the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate.
Adjusted for 3% inflation, your genuine gain in purchasing power is roughly 2%, or $1,400 in today's money. Always judge a raise against inflation — a nominal number that beats rising prices is real progress; one that trails it quietly erodes your standard of living.
The highest-impact move with a raise is to route some or all of it to savings before it hits your everyday spending. Increasing your 401(k) contribution by the raise amount, for instance, boosts retirement savings painlessly because you never adjusted to the higher take-home. Raises absorbed into lifestyle are the main driver of lifestyle inflation.
See the retirement impactThe extra income is taxed at your marginal rate, so your paycheck rises by less than $292 a month. Run both salaries through the paycheck calculator to see the real net change.
Paycheck calculatorWorked scenarios with the full analysis, so you can see how the numbers move before entering your own.
A typical annual merit increase, shown against inflation to reveal the real gain.
New salary
$73,500
That's a 5% raise, adding $3,500 a year: about $292 more a month, or $135 per biweekly paycheck. Before taxes, of course — your take-home increase will be somewhat less once the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate.
Adjusted for 3% inflation, your genuine gain in purchasing power is roughly 2%, or $1,400 in today's money. Always judge a raise against inflation — a nominal number that beats rising prices is real progress; one that trails it quietly erodes your standard of living.
The highest-impact move with a raise is to route some or all of it to savings before it hits your everyday spending. Increasing your 401(k) contribution by the raise amount, for instance, boosts retirement savings painlessly because you never adjusted to the higher take-home. Raises absorbed into lifestyle are the main driver of lifestyle inflation.
See the retirement impactCalculating the increase when you know the new number rather than the percentage.
New salary
$92,000
That's a 12.2% raise, adding $10,000 a year: about $833 more a month, or $385 per biweekly paycheck. Before taxes, of course — your take-home increase will be somewhat less once the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate.
Adjusted for 3% inflation, your genuine gain in purchasing power is roughly 9.2%, or $7,540 in today's money. Always judge a raise against inflation — a nominal number that beats rising prices is real progress; one that trails it quietly erodes your standard of living.
The highest-impact move with a raise is to route some or all of it to savings before it hits your everyday spending. Increasing your 401(k) contribution by the raise amount, for instance, boosts retirement savings painlessly because you never adjusted to the higher take-home. Raises absorbed into lifestyle are the main driver of lifestyle inflation.
See the retirement impactA raise that trails inflation, which is effectively a cut in real terms.
New salary
$61,200
That's a 2% raise, adding $1,200 a year: about $100 more a month, or $46 per biweekly paycheck. Before taxes, of course — your take-home increase will be somewhat less once the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate.
A 2% raise doesn't keep up with 3.50% inflation, so your real purchasing power falls by about 1.5% — roughly $900 in today's money. A raise below inflation is effectively a pay cut, which is worth raising in your next compensation conversation.
The highest-impact move with a raise is to route some or all of it to savings before it hits your everyday spending. Increasing your 401(k) contribution by the raise amount, for instance, boosts retirement savings painlessly because you never adjusted to the higher take-home. Raises absorbed into lifestyle are the main driver of lifestyle inflation.
See the retirement impactA significant jump from a promotion or job change, well above inflation.
New salary
$115,000
That's a 27.8% raise, adding $25,000 a year: about $2,083 more a month, or $962 per biweekly paycheck. Before taxes, of course — your take-home increase will be somewhat less once the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate.
Adjusted for 3% inflation, your genuine gain in purchasing power is roughly 24.8%, or $22,300 in today's money. Always judge a raise against inflation — a nominal number that beats rising prices is real progress; one that trails it quietly erodes your standard of living.
The highest-impact move with a raise is to route some or all of it to savings before it hits your everyday spending. Increasing your 401(k) contribution by the raise amount, for instance, boosts retirement savings painlessly because you never adjusted to the higher take-home. Raises absorbed into lifestyle are the main driver of lifestyle inflation.
See the retirement impactA raise has two numbers that matter: the nominal increase (the raw percentage or dollar amount) and the real increase (what's left after inflation). A 3% raise during 3% inflation leaves your purchasing power exactly where it was — you're earning more dollars that each buy a little less. Only a raise that beats inflation actually improves your standard of living.
This is why judging a raise against the inflation rate matters. In low-inflation years, a modest raise is genuine progress; in high-inflation years, the same percentage can be a real pay cut. If your raise consistently trails inflation, your effective pay is falling even as the number on your offer letter rises — a fair point to raise in a compensation discussion.
The single most effective move with a raise is to save it before you adjust to it. When your take-home hasn't yet risen in your mind, redirecting the increase — into a 401(k), an IRA, extra debt payments, or savings — costs you nothing in felt lifestyle. This is the antidote to lifestyle inflation, the tendency for spending to rise to match every income bump, which is why some high earners never build wealth.
A concrete tactic: each time you get a raise, increase your retirement contribution rate by a chunk of it. Over a career, this quietly moves you from saving too little to saving plenty, without a single painful budget cut. The raise you never see is the one that builds the most wealth — because it compounds for decades instead of funding a bigger everyday life.
A raise below inflation is a real pay cut. Judge every raise against rising prices, not just the headline percentage.
Absorbing a raise into lifestyle is how high earners stay broke. Save some before you adjust to the higher pay.
The raise is taxed at your marginal rate, so take-home rises by less than the gross figure.
If your raise consistently trails inflation, your real pay is falling. That's a fair point to raise with your employer.
Future raises build on your current salary, so a higher base compounds. A bigger raise now is worth more than it appears.
Multiply your current salary by the raise percentage for the annual increase. A 5% raise on $70,000 is $3,500 a year — about $292 a month before tax. But judge it against inflation: after 3% inflation, a 5% raise is really about 2% in purchasing power. Enter your numbers above for the full breakdown.
Compare your raise percentage to the inflation rate. If your raise is higher, your real pay rose; if it's lower, your purchasing power fell despite earning more dollars. A 2% raise during 3.5% inflation is effectively a 1.5% pay cut. The calculator shows your real, after-inflation raise directly.
Divide the dollar increase by your current salary and multiply by 100. If you go from $70,000 to $75,000, that's $5,000 ÷ $70,000 = about 7.1%. To go the other way, multiply your current salary by (1 + the raise percentage). This tool calculates it either way.
No — the extra income is taxed at your marginal rate, so your paycheck rises by less than the gross raise. A $3,500 raise at a 22% marginal rate adds about $2,730 to take-home after federal tax, before state tax and other deductions. Run both salaries through a paycheck calculator for the exact net difference.
Save it before you get used to it. Redirecting a raise into retirement contributions, debt payoff or savings — before it inflates your everyday spending — is the most effective way to build wealth from it. A common tactic is to raise your 401(k) contribution rate by part of each raise, painlessly increasing your savings over time.
The next calculations that usually follow this one.
Federal tax, FICA, state tax and deductions — see exactly what lands in your account.
Turn an hourly rate into annual, monthly, biweekly and weekly pay — accounting for your real hours and unpaid time off.
See what your contributions and your employer's match grow into — and whether you're leaving free money on the table.
Built on take-home pay, with the annual costs that break most monthly budgets.
See your overtime rate, weekly pay with overtime, and what those extra hours add up to over a year.
Guides that explain the decisions behind these numbers.
How US federal tax brackets work, the difference between marginal and effective rates, and the deductions and accounts that actually reduce your bill.
Updated January 15, 2026
How to build a budget on take-home pay using the 50/30/20 framework, account for irregular annual costs, and fix the categories that actually matter.
Updated January 15, 2026
How inflation erodes purchasing power, what protects against it, and why every long-range financial projection needs an inflation adjustment.
Updated January 15, 2026
New tools, guides and the occasional thing that will genuinely save you money. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Developer note: this form has no backend. Connect an email provider and add a privacy policy before collecting real addresses.