Salary Raise Calculator

A raise gets announced as one number — "you're getting 5%" — and then a smaller, less satisfying number shows up in your paycheck. That gap is not a mistake. It's federal income tax, FICA, and your state rate all taking a bite, and because federal tax is progressive, the bite on your raise is usually a bigger percentage than the bite on your current salary.

This calculator does three things a plain "X% raise" number can't:

• Shows what you actually keep of the raise, after federal tax, state tax, and FICA — not what shows up on the offer letter.
• Adjusts for inflation, so you can tell whether the raise grew your purchasing power or just kept up with rising prices.
• Compounds the raise forward, because a bigger salary base means every future raise is worth more too.

Still negotiating the number itself? See how to negotiate a raise for a step-by-step approach, check the current benchmark for your situation in average raise for a promotion, or see how far the same raise actually goes depending where you live in the real value of a raise by state.

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The calculator runs your salary through both marginal tax brackets, using the 2026 federal brackets and standard deduction, before and after the raise, then compares the two:

Worked example, matching this calculator's defaults — $60,000 salary, single filer, 5% raise, 5% state rate:

• Raise: 5% of $60,000 = $3,000 → new salary $63,000
• After-tax income before the raise: $47,390 per year
• After-tax income after the raise: $49,650.50 per year
• Extra take-home: $2,260.50 per year, or $188.38 per month
• You keep 75.3% of the gross raise — the rest goes to federal tax (12% marginal bracket at this income), FICA, and state tax

FICA is calculated the same way it hits your paycheck: Social Security tax stops once your wages pass the $184,500 wage base, while Medicare has no cap. For most raises well under that threshold, that distinction doesn't move the number much — it matters more for high earners near the cap.

A raise below inflation is a pay cut you don't notice until your grocery bill tells you. The calculator compares your raise percentage to your expected inflation rate:

At the defaults — a 5% raise against 2.5% expected inflation — your real, purchasing-power-adjusted raise is 2.44%, not 5%. That's still a genuine gain, but it's less than half of what the headline number suggests. If inflation ran at 5% instead, this same raise would be a real-terms wash.

Why This Compounds Over Your Career

The calculator projects your salary forward assuming a steady annual raise rate thereafter (3% by default) and totals the gap between "with this raise" and "without it." At the defaults, a single $3,000 raise today is worth $34,391.64 in cumulative extra earnings over the next 10 years — because every future raise compounds off the higher base, not the old one. This is the mechanical reason it's usually worth negotiating hard on the first raise in a new role: the effect never resets. See what a steady raise rate adds up to over 5, 10, 20 and 30 years for the full breakdown, and how your raise compares to 2026 national raise benchmarks.