Raise formulas
New pay = old pay × (1 + raise ÷ 100) · Raise % = (new − old) ÷ old × 100
A 4% raise on $55,000: 55,000 × 1.04 = $57,200, which is $2,200 more a year, about $183 a month or $1.06 an hour.
Is your raise keeping up with prices?
Compare your raise with inflation over the same year. If prices rose 3% and your raise was 3%, your buying power stayed the same; a 2% raise would be a small pay cut in real terms.
Raise examples
| Current salary | 3% raise | 5% raise | 10% raise |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $46,350 | $47,250 | $49,500 |
| $60,000 | $61,800 | $63,000 | $66,000 |
| $80,000 | $82,400 | $84,000 | $88,000 |
| $100,000 | $103,000 | $105,000 | $110,000 |
Hourly raises
For hourly pay the math is the same: a 4% raise on $20 an hour is $20.80, which adds $1,664 a year at 2,080 hours.
What you’ll actually see
Taxes take part of every raise. On a $60,000 salary, a $3,000 raise usually adds a little over $2,000 a year to take-home pay, depending on your state. Check it in the take-home pay calculator.
Asking for a raise
Come with numbers: what similar jobs pay in your area, what you’ve delivered since your last raise, and the amount you want (a specific figure, not a range). Ask for the new salary to start on a set date, and if the answer is no, ask what would need to happen for a raise at your next review.
A raise also lifts anything tied to your salary, such as a 401(k) match set as a percentage of pay, so the real value can be a little higher than the paycheck change alone.
A raise after tax
Federal income tax works in brackets, so only the extra pay is taxed at your top rate; a raise never lowers your take-home pay. Example: a single person in Texas going from $60,000 to $63,000 keeps about $2,325 of the $3,000 raise after federal income tax (22%) and Social Security and Medicare (7.65%). Check your own numbers in the take-home pay calculator.
Raise versus inflation
A raise only increases what you can buy if it beats inflation. If prices rose 3% over the year and your raise is 3%, your real pay is unchanged; a 5% raise is about a 2% real increase. When you compare offers, look at the raise after tax and after inflation.
Percentage raise from an hourly wage
Going from $18 to $19.50 an hour is (19.50 − 18) ÷ 18 = 8.3%. Over 2,080 hours that adds $3,120 a year before tax.
Related calculators
- Salary to Hourly Calculator: Annual salary to hourly, weekly and monthly pay.
- Pay Period Converter: Annual, monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, weekly.
- Overtime Pay Calculator: Weekly pay with time-and-a-half.
Questions people ask
What is a normal raise?
Annual merit raises at many US employers are in the low single digits. Promotions and job changes usually bring larger increases.
Formula checked October 2026 · How we calculate