Pay raise calculator
Type your pay and the raise, as a percent or in dollars. You get your new pay, the monthly increase, and what you keep after tax. Add three more numbers and you get how much sooner the raise brings the year work becomes optional.
Your new pay
$89,250a year
That is a 5% raise, $4,250 a year, or $354 a month before tax.
- New pay each month
- $7,438
- before tax
- Raise each month
- $354
- before tax
- You keep each month
- $248
- after 30% tax
Tax is counted at 30%, which is federal plus payroll, rounded up.
What the raise does to your year
You can skip this part. Add three numbers and the page shows the year work becomes optional, with the raise invested and without it.
Add up every account you invest in. Leave out your home.
Count your 401k, any employer match, an IRA and a brokerage account.
Everything you live on, the fun included.
What counts as spending
Everything you live on, the fun included. Big repeat costs like a car or a roof go in as a yearly average. Leave out what you save and invest, and one-off goals. Debt payments that end before your freedom date stay out as well.
How to read it
Take Marcus, the example the tool opens on. He earns $85,000 a year and gets a 5% raise. The raise is $4,250 a year, so his new pay is $89,250, which is $7,438 a month before tax. The raise itself is $354 a month before tax. After tax at 30%, he keeps about $248 a month.
The second part is what other raise calculators leave out. Marcus has $60,000 invested, adds $2,200 a month, and lives on $3,500 a month. His FIRE number is $1,050,000, which is 25 times a year of that spending. At his current pace work becomes optional in 2044. If he invests the $248 a month the raise leaves after tax, the year moves to 2043, one year sooner on the calendar. Measured to the month, the raise moves it 11 months. A raise he spends moves it by nothing.
The third part tells you whether you are paid what the job pays where you live. Type your role and city and the page shows the band from public pay surveys and says whether your pay is below it, inside it, or above it.
The math
raise = pay × percent ÷ 100
new pay = pay + raise
kept each month = raise × 0.7 ÷ 12
A percent raise is the old pay times the percent, divided by 100. A dollar raise is already the raise, and its percent is the raise divided by the old pay, times 100. New pay is the old pay plus the raise. Divide by 12 for the month.
What you keep is the raise after tax. We count 30% of any raise as tax, which is the 22% federal bracket most earners are in plus 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, rounded up. State income tax is not in that number. If your state taxes income, you keep a little less than the page shows. The same rate is used on every page of this site, so the raise line on the FIRE calculator and the coast FIRE calculator agrees with this one.
The year uses the FIRE calculator's math. Your invested balance grows at 7% a year after inflation and twelve months of investing go in each year. The first year the balance reaches 25 times your yearly spending is your year. With the raise, the amount you keep each month is added to your investing and the same calculation runs again. The difference is what the raise is worth in time, and it is shown in years when it moves the calendar year and in months when it does not.
What the calculator assumes
- The raise keeps 70% after tax. Your own rate depends on your state, your other income, and how you file.
- The raise is invested in full, every month, and spending stays where it is in today's dollars. A raise that is spent moves the year by nothing.
- Growth is 7% a year after inflation, every year, with no losing years. Treat the year as an estimate and rerun it once a year.
- The FIRE number, which the book calls your FI Number, is 25 times spending, which is a 4% withdrawal rate. For a retirement longer than 30 years, use 28 or 30 times.
- Typical pay comes from public pay surveys for large US metros. A smaller city may show no figure, and the page never invents one.
New pay by raise percent
Find the row closest to your pay and the percent you expect. Every cell is the new yearly pay.
| Pay now | 3% | 5% | 10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,500 | $52,500 | $55,000 |
| $75,000 | $77,250 | $78,750 | $82,500 |
| $100,000 | $103,000 | $105,000 | $110,000 |
| $150,000 | $154,500 | $157,500 | $165,000 |
What you keep each month
A raise arrives after tax, twelve times a year. This table shows the monthly amount you keep from a yearly raise at the 30% assumption, which is the amount the year calculation invests.
| Yearly raise | A month before tax | A month after tax |
|---|---|---|
| $2,500 | $208 | $146 |
| $5,000 | $417 | $292 |
| $10,000 | $833 | $583 |
| $20,000 | $1,667 | $1,167 |
Questions people ask
How do I calculate a pay raise percentage?
Divide the raise by your old pay and multiply by 100. A $4,250 raise on $85,000 is 4,250 divided by 85,000, which is 0.05, so it is a 5% raise. Going the other way, 5% of $85,000 is $4,250.
What is a 5% raise on $85,000?
A 5% raise on $85,000 is $4,250 a year. Your new pay is $89,250, which is $7,438 a month before tax. After tax at the 30% this page assumes, you keep about $248 a month more.
What is a good raise?
A cost of living raise is usually 3% to 4%. A merit raise is usually 4% to 6%. A promotion or a new job often pays 10% to 20% more. What counts as good depends on what your job pays where you live, which the typical pay section on this page shows.
How much of a raise should I ask for?
Ask for a number tied to the market, not to what you had before. Look up what your job pays in your city, then ask for a figure inside the top half of that band if your results support it. A 10% ask with evidence is easier to get than a 3% ask with none. The book covers the conversation in chapter 9.
Am I underpaid?
Compare your pay with the typical band for your job and city. If you are below the band, you are paid less than most people doing your work where you live. Type your role and city in the typical pay section and the page tells you whether you are below, inside, or above it.
How much of a raise do I keep after tax?
About 70% of it. We count 30% of any raise as tax, which is the 22% federal bracket most earners are in plus 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, rounded up. State income tax is not in that number. A $10,000 raise leaves about $583 a month.
Does a raise change the year I can stop working?
Only if you invest it. A raise you spend changes nothing. A raise you invest after tax moves the year work becomes optional, and the further you are from your number, the more it moves. Add your invested balance, your monthly investing and your spending to this page and it shows the years and months.
When should I ask for a raise?
After a result your manager can name, at a review, or when your market pay has moved above what you earn. The worst time is when you have nothing new to point to. The book gives the script for each of these in chapter 9.