Pay raise calculator percentage
Put your current pay in the first box and the raise as a factor in the second: 3% is 1.03. The answer is your new pay, and it updates as you type.
12 × 12 = 144
Adding 12 to itself 12 times gives the same answer.
These are gross figures
Every number on this page is pay before deductions. The multiplication applies to gross pay, so the answer is a new gross salary — not take-home pay. Tax, withholding, pension and any other deduction are recalculated on the new figure, so what actually reaches your account moves by a different amount than the percentage suggests.
Using the boxes for a raise
A raise is a multiplication. Replace the two numbers above with your current pay and the raise factor. A 3% raise is 1.03, so 42,000 × 1.03 gives 43,260. If you only want the extra money rather than the new total, use 0.03 in the second box instead.
| Raise | Second box |
|---|---|
| 1% | 1.01 |
| 2.5% | 1.025 |
| 3% | 1.03 |
| 5% | 1.05 |
| 7.5% | 1.075 |
| 10% | 1.1 |
You know both figures and want the percentage
Subtract the old pay from the new pay, divide that difference by the old pay, then multiply by 100. You can also work backwards in the boxes: multiply the old pay by 1.04, and if it lands on the new figure the raise was 4%. Nudge the factor up or down until the two match. The same move on a handheld keypad is set out in how to find a percentage on a calculator.
Where the answer goes wrong
- Two raises do not add up. A 3% rise followed by a 2% rise is not 5%. Multiply 1.03 by 1.02 in the boxes and you get 1.0506, which is 5.06%.
- Gross is not take-home. The factor applies cleanly to gross pay. What reaches your account moves by a different amount, because deductions are recalculated on the new figure.
- Keep the period straight. An hourly rate times 1.03 gives a new hourly rate, not an annual one. Convert first, then apply the factor once.
- A rise quoted in money is not a percentage. An extra 1,200 on 40,000 is 3%; on 60,000 it is 2%.
The rest of the arithmetic on this site sits in the calculators index, including the percentage average calculator for averaging several years of increases.