Pay Raise Calculator
Legal, HR & PayrollCalculate your new pay after a raise, entered as a percentage, a flat dollar amount, or the new figure you were quoted, for salaried or hourly pay.
New Annual Pay
Your annual pay after the raise.
Raise Percentage
5.00%
The effective raise as a percentage of your current pay, regardless of which form you entered it in.
Raise Amount (Annual)
$3,250
Your total raise, annualized, regardless of how you entered it.
New Hourly Pay
$32.81
Your pay per hour after the raise (assumes a 40-hour week if you're paid a salary).
New Weekly Pay
$1,312.50
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid weekly.
New Biweekly Paycheck
$2,625.00
Your gross paycheck after the raise, if paid every two weeks.
New Semi-Monthly Pay
$2,843.75
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid twice a month on fixed dates.
New Monthly Pay
$5,687.50
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid monthly.
New Bi-Monthly Pay
$11,375.00
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid every two months.
New Quarterly Pay
$17,062.50
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid quarterly.
New Semi-Annual Pay
$34,125.00
Your gross pay after the raise, if paid twice a year.
Wage Percentile for Your Occupation
Below the 10th percentile
Where your new annual pay falls within the real May 2025 BLS national wage distribution for the occupation you selected, estimated by interpolating between the published 10th/25th/median/75th/90th percentile wages.
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Odeh AhwalBased on 3 sources
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Legal, HR & Payroll calculators
A pay raise rarely arrives in the form that is easiest to work with. A merit letter quotes a percentage, a counteroffer quotes a new salary figure, and an hourly job quotes cents per hour, and comparing any of these to what you already earn takes a few real calculations. This calculator accepts whichever form your raise came in, percent, flat dollar amount, or new pay figure, for either an annual salary or an hourly wage, and works out the rest automatically. Enter your current pay and how the raise was described, and it returns the raise as a percentage, the dollar amount involved, and your new pay broken out by hour, paycheck, month, and year, so you can see what the number actually means day to day rather than just as a single annual figure.
How to Calculate a Pay Raise
There are two directions this calculation runs, depending on what you already know. If you know the raise percentage:
- new pay = old pay x (1 + raise percent / 100)
- Example: a 4% raise on $70,000 is $70,000 x 1.04 = $72,800
If you instead know your old pay and the new figure you were quoted, and want the percentage:
- raise percent = (new pay - old pay) / old pay x 100
- Example: going from $60,000 to $63,000 is 3,000 / 60,000 x 100, a 5% raise
The same math applies hourly. An hourly rate moving from $25.00 to $30.00 is (30 - 25) / 25 x 100, a 20% raise, and it works the same way regardless of how many hours you work, since the percentage only depends on the rate itself. Enter your numbers above in whichever form you have them, percent, flat amount, or new pay, and the calculator fills in the rest.
What Counts As a Typical Raise
Raise size depends heavily on why it is being given, and it is not always tied to individual performance. Some raises are automatic and scheduled; others depend on a review, a change in role, or a change in the law itself.
| Raise type | Typical range | What it reflects |
|---|---|---|
| Length-of-service / tenure step | 1-3% | Scheduled by policy or union contract, based on time in the role, not a review |
| Cost-of-living adjustment | 2-4% | Keeping pace with inflation, not performance |
| Standard annual merit raise | 3-5% | Routine performance review, no role change |
| Strong performance / above-average review | 5-8% | Meaningfully above-average performance |
| Promotion or role change | 10-20%+ | New responsibilities, title, or market rate |
| Competing offer / retention counteroffer | 10-20%+ | Matching or beating an external offer |
| Legal / minimum-wage increase | Varies by jurisdiction | A change in the law itself, not a company decision |
Two of these are worth knowing about specifically because they are not performance-based at all. A length-of-service or tenure step is a scheduled increase built into some pay structures, especially union contracts and public-sector pay scales, that happens automatically at set intervals regardless of a review. A legal or minimum-wage increase happens when the law itself changes in your state or city, which can raise your pay even if your employer takes no action of its own, and workers already earning above the old minimum sometimes see a smaller ripple-effect increase too as pay scales adjust around the new floor.
Is Your Raise Beating Inflation
A raise that is smaller than inflation is a real pay cut in what your money actually buys, even though the number on your paycheck went up. If prices rose 3.5% over the past year and your raise was 2%, your purchasing power fell by roughly 1.5%, not stayed flat. To check your own raise against inflation, compare the percentage this calculator gives you directly against the most recent 12-month Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Percent, Flat Amount, or New Pay: Which Should You Enter
Raises get communicated in three different ways depending on who is giving them, and this calculator handles all three without needing to convert anything by hand first.
- Percentage: the most common form for an annual review, e.g. "you're getting a 4% raise." Enter it directly.
- Flat amount: common for hourly roles or a specific negotiated bump, e.g. "an extra $2 an hour" or "an extra $3,000 a year." Enter the dollar amount rather than trying to convert it to a percentage yourself.
- New pay figure: common in an offer letter or counteroffer, e.g. "your new salary will be $72,000." Enter the new figure directly and the calculator works out what percentage and dollar increase that represents.
Whichever one you start from, the other two are computed automatically, along with the breakdown by hour, paycheck, month, and year, which is the version of the number most people actually want when deciding whether to accept a raise or negotiate further.
How Your New Pay Compares to Others in Your Field
A raise answers one question, how much more you're making. It does not answer a different, equally real question: whether what you're making is competitive for your line of work. Select your occupation above and this calculator estimates where your new pay falls within the real national wage distribution for that occupation, using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' own published wage percentiles (10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th) from its May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The estimate works by interpolating between the two nearest published percentile points. If your new pay falls between the published median and 75th-percentile wage for your occupation, for example, the calculator places you proportionally between the 50th and 75th percentile based on exactly where your number falls in that range. A result below the 10th percentile or above the 90th percentile is reported as such rather than extrapolated past the real published data.
The full reference table behind the wage-percentile estimate above lists real May 2025 national annual wage percentiles from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, for all 30 occupations available in the selector, sorted by median wage.
| Occupation | 10th Pct | 25th Pct | Median | 75th Pct | 90th Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Managers | $90,260 | $123,020 | $166,790 | $216,410 | $293,610 |
| Sales Managers | $73,170 | $100,360 | $148,270 | $207,340 | $290,540 |
| Pharmacists | $99,290 | $129,380 | $140,910 | $161,840 | $174,230 |
| Software Developers | $82,460 | $105,210 | $135,980 | $171,980 | $214,670 |
| Data Scientists | $67,240 | $85,660 | $120,230 | $158,880 | $199,130 |
| Mechanical Engineers | $73,990 | $84,130 | $104,110 | $132,590 | $164,340 |
| Physical Therapists | $77,140 | $86,160 | $102,760 | $121,160 | $135,140 |
| Financial and Investment Analysts | $63,720 | $79,290 | $102,740 | $133,340 | $180,860 |
| Project Management Specialists | $61,580 | $78,440 | $102,320 | $133,100 | $167,970 |
| Civil Engineers | $68,240 | $79,930 | $100,840 | $129,680 | $163,220 |
| Dental Hygienists | $74,880 | $83,570 | $98,100 | $108,480 | $126,050 |
| Registered Nurses | $68,940 | $80,330 | $97,550 | $112,350 | $137,470 |
| Web Developers | $48,100 | $64,230 | $92,650 | $126,230 | $162,290 |
| Accountants and Auditors | $56,020 | $67,020 | $83,680 | $109,810 | $144,090 |
| Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers | $47,510 | $59,290 | $76,210 | $97,600 | $115,120 |
| Human Resources Specialists | $47,180 | $58,610 | $75,940 | $99,380 | $128,720 |
| Social Workers | $43,620 | $51,900 | $71,900 | $97,040 | $115,610 |
| Elementary School Teachers | $47,960 | $57,710 | $63,970 | $81,450 | $104,340 |
| Electricians | $42,640 | $49,430 | $63,190 | $83,940 | $108,510 |
| Graphic Designers | $39,520 | $49,040 | $62,960 | $81,830 | $104,910 |
| Paralegals and Legal Assistants | $44,740 | $50,340 | $62,890 | $80,080 | $101,500 |
| Chefs and Head Cooks | $37,900 | $48,440 | $62,470 | $78,750 | $98,560 |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | $40,140 | $47,960 | $58,640 | $69,120 | $79,380 |
| Real Estate Sales Agents | $32,970 | $40,040 | $52,830 | $82,020 | $123,590 |
| Bookkeeping and Accounting Clerks | $36,000 | $43,520 | $50,670 | $61,470 | $74,550 |
| Administrative Assistants | $33,280 | $38,830 | $47,540 | $58,000 | $66,350 |
| Construction Laborers | $35,090 | $38,620 | $47,120 | $59,740 | $78,090 |
| Customer Service Representatives | $31,750 | $36,870 | $44,770 | $51,780 | $63,590 |
| Retail Salespersons | $27,210 | $29,900 | $35,410 | $38,670 | $47,890 |
| Bartenders | $20,110 | $27,400 | $34,340 | $47,570 | $73,770 |
These are national figures across all industries and experience levels combined. Real pay for any individual role varies by state, metro area, years of experience, and company size, so use this table as a general reference point, not a precise benchmark for your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate a pay raise percentage?
Subtract your old pay from your new pay, divide by your old pay, then multiply by 100. Going from $60,000 to $63,000 is (63,000 - 60,000) / 60,000 x 100, a 5% raise. The same formula works for hourly pay: going from $25 to $30 an hour is (30 - 25) / 25 x 100, a 20% raise.
What is a typical annual raise percentage?
A standard cost-of-living or annual merit raise in the US commonly falls in the 3-5% range. A promotion, role change, or competitive counteroffer can be considerably larger, often 10-20% or more, since it reflects a real change in responsibility or market value rather than a routine annual adjustment.
Is a 10% annual raise the same as a 10% monthly raise?
Yes. A percentage raise applies equally to whichever pay period you're looking at. A 10% raise on a $1,000 monthly salary is an extra $100 a month, and a 10% raise on the equivalent $12,000 annual salary is an extra $1,200 a year, which is the same $100 a month once divided across 12 months.
What raise percentage would give me an extra month's salary over a year?
An 8.33% raise. Since 1 month is 1/12 of a year, and 1/12 as a percentage is 8.33%, a raise of that size adds exactly one month's worth of your old pay across the full year. On a $12,000 annual salary, an 8.33% raise adds $1,000, which is exactly one month's pay at the old rate.
Is a raise the same as a cost-of-living adjustment?
Not necessarily. A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is specifically meant to keep pace with inflation and preserve your purchasing power, while a merit raise reflects individual performance or market positioning and may be given separately from, or on top of, a COLA.
How do I find my raise percentage if I only know my old and new pay?
Select "A New Pay Figure" above and enter both your old pay and the new figure you were quoted. The calculator works out the exact percentage and dollar amount the change represents, rather than you needing to do the subtraction and division by hand.
Is my raise actually beating inflation?
Compare the raise percentage this calculator gives you directly against the most recent 12-month CPI inflation figure published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. If your raise percentage is lower than that figure, your real purchasing power went down even though your paycheck got bigger.
What's the difference between a percentage raise and a flat-dollar raise?
A percentage raise scales with your current pay, so the same 5% is worth more to someone already earning more. A flat-dollar raise, like an extra $2,000 a year or $1 an hour, is the same dollar amount regardless of starting pay, which means it represents a larger percentage increase for someone earning less.
How does this differ from the Raise Request Justification Calculator?
This calculator converts a raise you already have, in whatever form it was described, into your new pay and its breakdown by pay period. The Raise Request Justification Calculator instead helps you build the case for a raise you haven't received yet, using real market-rate data before you ask.
How accurate is the wage percentile estimate?
It's a real, sourced estimate, not a guess, based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' own published May 2025 national wage percentiles for your selected occupation. But it's a national figure interpolated between five known data points, so it doesn't account for your specific state, metro area, years of experience, or company size, all of which move real pay meaningfully. Use it as a starting reference, not a precise verdict.
Sources
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