Raise & Cost of Living Calculator
A 3% raise in a 4% inflation year is a pay cut. Here's the real number behind the percentage.
Your numbers
Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you type here is sent to Verdi or stored anywhere.
New salary
$74,880
$2,880 more per year, gross
- Extra per paycheck
- $110.77
- Extra per month
- $240.00
- Real raise after inflation
- 0.97%
- Buying power in today's dollars
- $72,699
- Raise needed just to break even
- 3.0%
How to use this calculator
Nominal versus real
The number on the letter is nominal. What matters is what it buys. Dividing the raise by inflation gives the real change, and it's often much smaller than it looks.
Before you spend it
Raises get absorbed quickly. Deciding where the extra per-paycheck amount goes before the first larger deposit lands is the difference between a raise you feel and one that vanishes.
Common questions
Why isn't the real raise just raise minus inflation?
Subtracting is a good approximation at small numbers. The exact calculation divides the growth factors, which matters more when either figure is large.
Does a raise change my tax bracket badly?
Brackets are marginal, so only the income above the threshold is taxed at the higher rate. A raise never leaves you with less take-home pay than before.
This calculator is an educational estimate based only on the figures you enter. Verdi does not provide financial, investment, tax, legal, credit or lending advice. Actual rates, fees, taxes and terms offered to you may differ.