Pay Raise Calculator
See what a raise is really worth: enter a percentage or dollar amount and get your new pay per year, month, paycheck, and week — plus the extra income over time.
A pay raise calculator translates a raise — given as a percentage or a dollar amount — into new gross pay across every period at once: per hour, week, paycheck, month, and year. A raise is a single number that changes all of those simultaneously, and the version you hear is rarely the version you feel. "Four percent" sounds abstract; $115 more per bi-weekly paycheck is concrete. A "$3,000 raise" sounds substantial; whether it is depends entirely on the salary it lands on. This tool converts freely in both directions so a raise quoted either way becomes the same set of comparable figures.
It also computes the number that makes raises worth negotiating: the cumulative extra income over the years you keep the raise. A raise is not a one-time payment — it repeats every year until you leave, and it usually becomes the base the next raise is calculated on. Even without that compounding, which this tool deliberately excludes, the simple sum over a few years is often ten times the headline annual figure people negotiate over.
How it's calculated
The core is one line in each mode:
New pay = current × (1 + raise% ÷ 100) or New pay = current + raise amount
The equivalent percentage is always reported back:
raise% = (new − current) ÷ current × 100. In hourly mode,
pay is annualized first (rate × hours × weeks), and a per-hour dollar
raise is converted the same way, so every mode lands on the same annual
footing before the per-period figures are divided out (weekly = annual ÷
52, bi-weekly = annual ÷ 26, monthly = annual ÷ 12). The cumulative
figure is deliberately linear: extra income = annual increase ×
years, with no future raises and no investment growth — a floor,
not a forecast. Full formulas are on our
methodology page.
Worked example: raises on a $75,000 salary
Take the calculator's default salary of $75,000 and run the common raise sizes through it, computed with the same engine as the tool above:
| Raise | New salary | Per month | Per paycheck (bi-weekly) | Extra over 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2% | $76,500 | +$125.00 | +$57.69 | $7,500 |
| 3% | $77,250 | +$187.50 | +$86.54 | $11,250 |
| 4% | $78,000 | +$250.00 | +$115.38 | $15,000 |
| 5% | $78,750 | +$312.50 | +$144.23 | $18,750 |
| 8% | $81,000 | +$500.00 | +$230.77 | $30,000 |
On this salary, every percentage point is worth $750 a year — so the gap between a 3% and a 4% offer is $62.50 a month, and $3,750 over five years. The last column is the negotiation column: a 4% raise kept for five years delivers $15,000 of extra gross income, five times its $3,000 headline. The same mechanics work per hour. A $1.50-an-hour raise on $28.50 is 5.26%, and at 40 hours across 52 weeks it annualizes to $3,120 a year — $15,600 over five years. And the two quoting styles cross over: a flat $3,000 equals 4% at exactly $75,000, beats it below, and trails it above, which is why the calculator always reports both forms.
When should you use this calculator?
Use it whenever a raise needs to become concrete numbers: after a review, to see what the announced percentage does to each paycheck; before a negotiation, to translate the amount you plan to ask for into annual and five-year terms; or when comparing two offers that quote pay changes differently — one as a percentage, one as a dollar figure. It answers the mechanical questions exactly: what the raise is per period, what it is as a percentage, and what it accumulates to over time. Run it alongside the hourly to annual calculator if the underlying pay is hourly with overtime, or the salary to hourly calculator to see what the new salary works out to per hour actually worked.
What it does not decide is whether a given raise is good — that depends on inflation, your market, and your alternatives, none of which are inputs here. The tool's job is to make sure the number you are weighing is the real one.
Assumptions and limitations
- All figures are gross (pre-tax). The take-home increase is smaller after withholding and payroll taxes; only the dollars above each bracket threshold are taxed at the higher rate, never the whole salary. The IRS Tax Withholding Estimator projects the net effect from your actual details.
- The cumulative figure assumes the new pay simply continues: no further raises, no compounding, no investment of the extra income. Real multi-year outcomes are usually higher because later raises stack on this one.
- The raise is assumed to apply immediately and for whole years. A mid-year effective date prorates the first year's extra income.
- In hourly mode, hours per week and paid weeks per year are held constant; a raise paired with a schedule change needs both tools run separately.
- Bonuses, equity, and benefit changes are not modeled — this tool measures base-pay changes only.
This page is educational content about how raise math works. It is not financial or career advice and does not consider your personal circumstances. For decisions that matter, consult a qualified professional.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-09