Pay Raise Calculator

Multiply your current salary by 1 plus the percentage. A 4% raise on £50,000 gives £52,000, an increase of £2,000 or about £167 a month before deductions.

Only against inflation. If prices rose 5%, a 3% raise is a real-terms pay cut of about 1.9%. If inflation was 1%, the same 3% is a genuine improvement of about 2%.

Because both are percentages of different bases. The correct form is (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. A 10% raise against 8% inflation is 1.85% real, not 2% — and the gap widens as both numbers rise.

It varies enormously by country, sector and year, and the honest answer is to check current survey data for your own market rather than trust a remembered figure. What matters more is whether it beats inflation and what the market rate for your role has done.

Not usually — only the portion falling in a higher band is taxed at the higher rate. You always keep more after a raise, though the take-home increase is smaller than the gross one.

On the final number. A percentage anchors the conversation to your current pay, which is precisely the figure you are arguing is too low. Market rate for the role is a stronger anchor than your own history.

Multiply the multipliers rather than adding the percentages. Three years at 3% is 1.03³ = 1.0927, a 9.27% total rise, not 9%.

The headline consumer price index for your country over the same period as the raise. Personal inflation differs from the index — housing and energy weight differently for everyone — so treat it as a benchmark rather than as your experience.

A raise pegged to an inflation measure, intended to hold real pay flat rather than to increase it. It is not a merit raise, and treating it as one is how real pay quietly erodes over a career.

With market evidence for the role rather than personal need, a specific figure, and a record of what changed in your contribution since the last review. The specific figure matters — it moves the conversation off your current salary.

Sometimes, if the title and scope genuinely improve your next move. But a title change with no pay change is the cheapest thing an employer can give, so it is worth being clear what the exchange actually is.

Yes, where contributions are a percentage of salary — both yours and the employer's rise automatically. In a defined benefit scheme a late-career raise can matter disproportionately depending on how the scheme calculates final pay.