Pay Raise Calculator
Calculate Your New Salary or Hourly Rate
Enter your current pay, choose whether it's hourly or annual, and add your raise as a percentage or a flat dollar amount — this calculator instantly fills in whichever piece you didn't enter. Free, with no signup required.
Last updated: July 2026
How to Use This Pay Raise Calculator
- Enter your Current Pay and select whether it's Per Year or Per Hour.
- Enter your Raise Amount, choosing either % (Percent) or $ (Flat Amount).
- Read your results — Dollar Increase, Percentage Increase, and New Pay all appear instantly, whichever direction you calculated from.
How to Calculate a Pay Raise (Percentage Formula)
New Pay = Current Pay × (1 + Raise Percentage ÷ 100)
Worked example: Say your current salary is $50,000 and you receive a 5% raise.
- Multiplier: 1 + (5 ÷ 100) = 1.05
- New salary: 50,000 × 1.05 = $52,500
- Dollar increase: 52,500 − 50,000 = $2,500
Percentage Raise vs. Flat Dollar Raise
A raise can be given as a percentage of your current pay, or as a flat dollar amount — and the two behave very differently depending on your starting salary.
A 5% raise scales with what you already earn: on a $40,000 salary, that's $2,000. On an $80,000 salary, the same 5% is $4,000 — double the dollar amount, because it's a share of a bigger number. A flat raise doesn't scale at all: a $2,000 raise is $2,000 whether you earn $40,000 or $80,000. That's why most employer raises are percentage-based — they scale proportionally with what each employee already earns, and compound further if you receive another percentage raise the following year, since it's calculated on your new, higher base.
What's a Good Raise? (Typical Benchmarks)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Cost Index, private-sector wages and salaries rose 3.4% over the 12 months ending March 2026. Separately, employer surveys generally point to these typical ranges for individual raises:
- Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA): roughly 2–4%, intended to keep pace with inflation rather than reward performance specifically.
- Standard merit raise: roughly 3–5%, the most common raise type for solid, expected performance.
- Promotion or market-adjustment raise: roughly 10–20%, reflecting a genuine change in role or responsibility.
These are broad benchmarks, not guarantees — your specific number depends on your industry, performance, location, and your employer's individual budget for the year.
Common Raise Percentages at Different Salaries
| Current Salary | 3% Raise | 5% Raise | 10% Raise |
|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | +$1,200 | +$2,000 | +$4,000 |
| $50,000 | +$1,500 | +$2,500 | +$5,000 |
| $60,000 | +$1,800 | +$3,000 | +$6,000 |
| $75,000 | +$2,250 | +$3,750 | +$7,500 |
| $100,000 | +$3,000 | +$5,000 | +$10,000 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate a raise percentage?
If you know your old and new pay, subtract the old amount from the new amount, divide by the old amount, then multiply by 100. Going from $50,000 to $52,500: (52,500 − 50,000) ÷ 50,000 × 100 = 5%.
How much is a 3% raise?
It depends on your current pay — 3% scales with your salary. See the table above for common examples, or enter your exact pay into the calculator above for a precise figure.
Does this calculator account for taxes?
No — it calculates your gross (pre-tax) pay increase only. Your actual take-home increase will be smaller after federal, state, and FICA taxes are applied. For an estimate of your after-tax pay, use our Take-Home Pay Calculator.
Is my data saved anywhere?
No. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere — all calculations run locally in your browser and disappear when you refresh or close the page. Use the Print, Email, or Download buttons to save your results before you leave.
Whether you're evaluating an offer or planning next year's budget, this calculator handles the raise math in either direction — percentage to dollars, or dollars to percentage. If your raise was quoted hourly and you want to see what it means annually, our Hourly to Salary Calculator can convert it the rest of the way.
Reviewed by the Pay & Time Hub team for accuracy, using wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Payscale's Salary Budget Survey.