Free staff pay & hr tool
Salary Increase Calculator
To calculate a salary increase, multiply your current pay by the raise percent and add the result to your pay. A 4% raise on $60,000 is $60,000 × 0.04 = $2,400, so the new salary is $62,400. With the BLS 12-month inflation rate at 3.4% (August 2026), that raise is ahead of inflation by about 0.6%. Enter your own numbers below.
Prepared by Prospyr · Reviewed October 3, 2026 · Free, no sign-up, runs in your browser
Default is the BLS CPI-U 12-month change for August 2026 (3.4%, released September 11, 2026). Edit it to use your own figure.
New annual pay
$62,400
+$2,400 a year (+4%) from $60,000.
That is $30.00 an hour (+$1.15).
Monthly
$5,200
Biweekly
$2,400
Weekly
$1,200
Against 3.4% inflation
+0.58%
Your raise is ahead of inflation by this much in purchasing power.
Matching inflation takes $62,040 a year ($29.83 an hour). You are $360 above that.
Before-tax figures. CPI measures price changes for urban consumers on average, not your own costs.
Salary increase formula
A raise is a percent change. The three forms you will use:
- New pay from a percent: new = old × (1 + raise % ÷ 100)
- New pay from dollars: new = old + raise amount
- Raise percent from new pay: raise % = (new − old) ÷ old × 100
For an hourly worker, do the math on the hourly rate. For a salaried worker, do it on annual pay. To compare the two, multiply the hourly rate by hours per week and paid weeks per year (2,080 hours for 40 hours across 52 weeks).
Worked example: a raise versus inflation
A front desk coordinator earns $22 an hour and gets a 3% raise. She works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Old annual pay | $22 × 2,080 | $45,760 |
| New hourly rate | $22 × 1.03 | $22.66 |
| New annual pay | $22.66 × 2,080 | $47,133 |
| Pay needed to match 3.4% inflation | $45,760 × 1.034 | $47,316 |
| Raise after inflation | 1.03 ÷ 1.034 − 1 | −0.39% |
The raise is real money, but it buys about 0.4% less than the old pay did a year ago. The calculator does the same steps for your numbers.
Raise calculator: percent, dollars or new pay
Pick the form your offer came in. A manager may say "a 4% raise", an offer letter may say "$65,000", and a payroll change may say "$2 an hour". All three land in the same result: new annual pay, new hourly pay, and the monthly, biweekly and weekly amounts.
Your inputs stay in the page URL, so you can send a scenario to a colleague. Nothing is sent to a server.
For practice owners planning raises
A raise costs more than the wage. Payroll taxes and some benefits scale with pay, so check the full cost with the employee cost calculator. For injectors paid by commission or per unit, compare plans in the nurse injector salary calculator.
Raises are easier to defend when you can see revenue per provider and per room. Prospyr's analytics reports that by provider and service.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a raise percentage?
Subtract your old pay from your new pay, then divide by your old pay and multiply by 100. Going from $60,000 to $65,000 is ($5,000 ÷ $60,000) × 100 = 8.33%. Choose "New pay" in the calculator and it does this for you.
How do I calculate a salary increase in dollars?
Multiply the current pay by the raise percent as a decimal. A 5% raise on $52,000 is $52,000 × 0.05 = $2,600, for a new salary of $54,600. For an hourly worker, the same raise takes $25 an hour to $26.25.
What is a good raise compared with inflation?
A raise that is larger than the inflation rate leaves your purchasing power higher, and a smaller one leaves it lower. The BLS reported a 3.4% 12-month increase in the CPI-U for August 2026, so a 3.4% raise only keeps pace. The calculator shows the gap in percent and in dollars.
How do I turn a raise into an hourly rate?
Divide the new annual pay by the hours you work in a year: hours per week times paid weeks. $62,400 over 2,080 hours (40 × 52) is $30 an hour. The calculator shows the hourly rate for both old and new pay.
Is the raise before or after tax?
All figures are before tax. Your take-home change depends on your withholding, benefits and tax bracket, so the after-tax gain is smaller than the gross raise.
Which inflation number should I compare against?
The default is the BLS CPI-U all-items 12-month change, which covers urban consumers on average. Your own costs may rise faster or slower. Edit the field to test another figure, such as a local or category-specific rate.
Sources and scope
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index news release (CPI-U, August 2026, released September 11, 2026)
Source of the default inflation figure: CPI-U up 3.4 percent over the 12 months ending August 2026, not seasonally adjusted.
A math aid for before-tax pay. It does not account for taxes, benefits or your employment terms.