Quick answer

Raise percentage = (new salary − old salary) ÷ old salary × 100. Moving from $75,000 to $77,250 is ($2,250 ÷ $75,000) × 100 = 3%. The same formula works for hourly rates when both sides use dollars per hour.

How to use this percentage calculator

  1. Leave the tool in “Raise % from old and new salary” mode (the default on this page).
  2. Enter current pay and the new pay you were offered or recorded, using the same pay period for both.
  3. Read the raise percent, dollar difference, and the period table. Switch modes if you already know the percent and need the new salary instead.

Formulas for salary increase percentage

Percent from two salaries

pct = (new − old) ÷ old × 100. Requires old > 0.

New salary from a known percent

new = old × (1 + pct ÷ 100). A 6.67% raise on $45,000 is $48,001.50 before any HR rounding.

Dollar raise amount

amount = new − old. Useful when comparing offers that quote round dollar figures instead of percents.

Full period conversions and inflation math live on the pay raise calculator homepage and in our methodology.

Worked percentage examples

The rows below use the same percent and dollar identities as the tool on this page, so the table and the interactive results stay aligned.

Old salary, new salary, raise %, and dollar increase
Old salary New salary Raise % Increase
$45,000 $48,000 6.67% $3,000
$75,000 $77,250 3% $2,250
$90,000 $96,300 7% $6,300
$55,000 $58,300 6% $3,300

More worked examples with different numbers

A raise percentage calculator is most useful when you walk the same math across several scenarios. Here are three that people commonly need beyond the summary table.

Market adjustment on a mid salary. You earn $68,000 and receive a letter moving you to $71,400. Difference = $3,400. Percent = $3,400 ÷ $68,000 × 100 = 5%. Monthly cash rises by about $283 before tax ($3,400 ÷ 12). That 5% is above many merit-cycle guidelines, which is why employers often label it a market or equity adjustment rather than ordinary merit.

Small dollar bump that looks large in percent. An intern moves from $18/hour to $19/hour. Percent = $1 ÷ $18 × 100 ≈ 5.56%. At 20 hours per week the annual increase is only about $1,040 ($1 × 20 × 52). The percent looks strong; the yearly cash is modest because the base and hours are both low.

Senior salary where a round percent is a lot of money. A 2.5% raise on $140,000 is $3,500 per year — more dollars than a 5% raise on $60,000 ($3,000). When two coworkers compare “who got the better raise,” convert both offers to annual dollars and to percent so the conversation is not distorted by salary level alone.

Semi-monthly vs annual inputs. Someone is paid $2,916.67 twice a month ($70,000 annual) and will receive $3,041.67 semi-monthly after a raise. Using the semi-monthly figures: ($3,041.67 − $2,916.67) ÷ $2,916.67 × 100 ≈ 4.29%. Annualizing first ($70,000 → $73,000) gives about 4.29% as well. Mixing one annual figure with one paycheck figure is the mistake that produces nonsense percents.

Common mistakes when calculating raise percentage

  • Comparing take-home (net) pay stubs instead of gross base pay. Benefit elections and tax withholding change net without changing the employer’s raise percent.
  • Forgetting a signing bonus or retention bonus is not base pay. Include only ongoing salary or wage in the percentage unless you are explicitly measuring total cash for one year.
  • Using the new salary as the denominator. Percent change always divides by the old figure. Dividing by the new number understates the raise.
  • Treating a compressed mid-year raise as a full-year percent without noting the effective date. A 4% raise that starts in July still shows 4% on the rate, but only about half the annual dollars hit that calendar year.
  • Ignoring currency or locality when comparing international offers. Convert both salaries to the same currency and purchasing-power context before calling one a “higher percentage.”

Hourly vs salaried edge cases

Salaried staff usually feed annual figures into a salary percentage increase calculator. Hourly staff should prefer matching hourly rates on both sides of the formula, then annualize with real hours. A posted “$55,000 salaried equivalent” for a 40-hour role is not the same as $55,000 of earnings on a 32-hour schedule.

Exempt salaried employees who regularly work more than 40 hours do not automatically earn a higher percentage when hours rise — the salary is fixed. Non-exempt hourly employees see overtime premiums scale with the new base rate, so a percent raise can change overtime dollars more than straight-time dollars alone suggest.

When an employer converts you from hourly to salaried (or the reverse), compute percentage from old annualized cash at your expected hours to new annual base. Do not compare an hourly rate directly to an annual salary without converting units first. The hourly raise calculator handles rate and hours together when that is the clearer path.

Back pay and delayed percentage raises

Once you know the raise percent, back pay is mostly calendar math. Suppose annual pay moves from $80,000 to $84,000 (5%). The annual raise amount is $4,000, or about $153.85 per biweekly check ($4,000 ÷ 26). If the raise was effective eight biweekly periods ago but paid at the old rate, rough back pay ≈ 8 × $153.85 ≈ $1,230.80 before tax on the correction.

Confirm whether overtime, shift differentials, or commissions should also be rebuilt at the new rate for those periods. A clean base-pay percent does not always equal the payroll true-up. For a full walkthrough, see how to calculate a raise and the back-pay section there.

When a raise percentage is not enough

A tidy percent can still leave you behind. If inflation for the period matches or exceeds your raise, purchasing power did not improve. If peers in your market earn meaningfully more at the same level, a 3% cycle may only slow the gap. If the raise is one-time cash labeled as a “raise” but not added to base, next year’s percent starts from the old floor again.

Use percentage as the negotiation language employers already speak, then insist on dollar and market context. Benchmarks live on average raise percentage; multi-year compounding lives on the annual raise calculator; team pool math lives on the merit increase calculator. SalaryIncreaseCalc keeps the percent identity consistent across those pages so a 3% figure means the same arithmetic everywhere.

When percentage is the right lens

Percentages make different salary levels comparable. A $3,000 raise is 5% at $60,000 and only 2.5% at $120,000. Hiring ranges, equity guidelines, and budget pools are almost always expressed in percents for that reason.

Still convert back to dollars before you accept or decline. Cash flow, rent, and student loans care about the monthly increase, not the label on the HR form. Use the period table in the tool to see biweekly and monthly impact beside the percent.

If your question is whether a percent beats inflation, open the homepage calculator’s inflation field or read average raise percentage benchmarks when you need external context. For hourly workers converting a percent into a new rate, use the hourly raise calculator.