Salary Increase Calculator

What this calculator does

This calculator projects your new annual and monthly salary after a raise. You enter your current salary and either a percentage raise or a dollar amount, and the tool tells you the new figures plus the dollar increase. An optional after-tax toggle uses US 2024 federal single-filer brackets to estimate take-home impact.

It is the forward direction of “I know what raise I’m being offered; what does my new pay look like?” The companion Salary Raise Calculator is the reverse direction (you have an old salary and a new salary; what percentage raise is that?).

How salary raise math works

A percentage raise multiplies the current salary:

new salary = current × (1 + percentage / 100)

A $60,000 salary with a 4% raise becomes $60,000 × 1.04 = $62,400. The dollar increase is $2,400 a year, or $200 a month.

A dollar raise is even simpler — current salary plus the dollar amount. The calculator computes the equivalent percentage:

percentage = dollar amount / current × 100

So $60,000 with a $3,000 raise = 5% raise, new salary $63,000.

For the after-tax estimate, the calculator computes federal income tax on both old and new salary using the US 2024 single-filer brackets (10% to $11,600; 12% to $47,150; 22% to $100,525; 24% to $191,950; 32% to $243,725; 35% to $609,350; 37% above). The take-home figures ignore state income tax, FICA, and benefits deductions — they are a ballpark.

Reading a raise in context

The headline percentage matters less than its position relative to three benchmarks:

Inflation. If consumer price inflation is running 3.5% and your raise is 3%, you took a real-terms pay cut despite the positive headline. Real-wage purchasing power dropped 0.5%. Conversely, a 4% raise during a 1% inflation year is materially more valuable. Always read raise % against the inflation rate of the period.

Industry merit-pay ranges. WorldatWork, SHRM, Mercer and Aon publish annual salary-budget surveys with industry-specific ranges. In 2024, the US median merit raise budget was around 4.0%, with the strongest performers in critical roles getting 6-8%. By industry: tech is typically 4-5% for stable performers, finance 3-5%, retail 2-4%, healthcare 3-4%. Compare your raise % against your industry’s median rather than a generic “is 4% good?” — context matters.

Peer comparison. The most useful benchmark, and the hardest to get. Levels.fyi (for tech roles), Glassdoor, and informal networks within your industry tell you what people at your level make in your geography. A raise that keeps you near the 50th percentile of your peer band is healthy. A raise that drops you to the 25th percentile is a signal to interview elsewhere — external offers historically pay 10-25% above internal raises, and the market rate is what your employer would have to pay to replace you.

Promotion vs merit raise vs COLA

Three distinct kinds of pay bumps that often get conflated:

• Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA): across-the-board, tied to inflation, no performance component. Common in unions, government, and some structured pay bands. Typical 2-4% in normal years; 4-6% in high-inflation years.
• Merit raise: performance-based, sized by your manager’s review against a fixed annual budget. Typical 0-8% depending on rating.
• Promotion raise: larger one-time bump that accompanies a role change (e.g. Senior to Staff). Often 10-25% on top of any merit raise for the same cycle.

Many US private employers blend the first two. A “3% baseline plus 0-7% merit” budget is structurally the same as “COLA + merit” but presented as a single number. When you negotiate, ask whether your raise includes the structural baseline or whether the % you were quoted is the performance component alone.

After-tax reality vs pre-tax raise

A pre-tax raise of $5,000 does not put $5,000 of additional cash in your pocket. After federal income tax (~22% marginal for many middle-income earners), FICA (7.65%), state tax (4-13% depending on state), and any 401(k) contribution increase, the actual take-home impact is typically 50-65% of the headline number. The after-tax toggle in this calculator gives a federal-only ballpark; for the full picture, run your numbers through tax software or talk to a tax professional.

Privacy

The calculator runs as JavaScript on your device. Salary, raise %, and tax estimates stay in your browser tab. No fetch calls, no analytics, no server logging.