Pay raise calculator: your raise per paycheck
How much is a 3% raise per paycheck? On a $75,000 salary it is $2,250 a year before tax: about $87 more on each biweekly check, or about $61 once tax comes out. Enter your own pay to see your raise per paycheck, per month and per year, with taxes taken out and inflation compared.
Run the numbers
Enter your current salary and your raise, as a new salary or a percentage.
New to a term? Money terms explained.
How this calculator works ↓Your inputs
Enter raise as…What the raise actually means
What if you invested it?
Some people invest part of a raise before their spending rises to match it. This shows what that share could grow to. It is an illustration, not a recommendation.
If you invested it
Future value of investing your specified % of each after-tax raise dollar, compounded at your annual return.
How this calculator works
A raise is quoted as a yearly number before tax, your gross pay. What you notice is the change in each paycheck after tax, your net pay. The calculator gets from one to the other in four steps:
- Raise before tax. New salary minus current salary. In percentage mode it is current salary times the percentage. A 3% raise on $75,000 is $2,250 a year.
- Tax on the raise. The raise times the tax rate you enter. The right rate is your marginal tax rate, the rate on your top dollars, because every dollar of a raise sits on top of what you already earn. It is higher than your average rate. At the default 30%, $675 of the $2,250 goes to tax and $1,575 is left.
- Per paycheck and per month. The after-tax raise divided by your number of paychecks a year (26 if you are paid every two weeks) and by 12. $1,575 is about $61 per biweekly check and about $131 a month.
- Against inflation. The raise after inflation is new salary divided by current salary, divided by (1 + inflation), minus 1. It shows whether the new pay buys more than the old pay did a year ago. A 3% raise against 3.7% inflation comes to about −0.7%: more dollars, slightly less buying power. Keeping pace means a raise of current salary times inflation, $2,775 in the example.
The 5- and 10-year figures multiply the after-tax raise by the number of years and assume no further raises. The investing section puts the share you choose of each month's after-tax raise into an account and grows it monthly at the yearly return you enter, the standard formula for a series of equal monthly deposits.
Two simplifications to know about: one flat rate is used for every dollar of the raise, even if part of it crosses into a higher bracket, and deductions that rise with pay, such as a 401(k) contribution set as a percentage, are not taken out.
Assumptions and where they come from
| Assumption | Default | Source / note |
|---|---|---|
| Example salary and raise | $75,000, raised 3% to $77,250 | An example, not a statistic. Enter your own salary and raise. |
| Tax rate on the raise | 30% | The 22% federal bracket plus 7.65% FICA (6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare, per the IRS). A single filer earning $75,000 in 2026 who takes the $16,100 standard deduction has $58,900 of taxable income, which falls in the 22% bracket of $50,400 to $105,700 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32). State income tax is not included; add your state's rate. Joint filers, higher earners and lower earners fall in other brackets, and the Social Security part stops once pay passes that year's Social Security wage cap. |
| Pay frequency | Every two weeks (26 paychecks) | A default. Your pay stub shows your own schedule; twice a month is 24. |
| Inflation | 3.7% | The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2026 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, released October 14, 2026). The figure changes every month; the latest release has the current number. |
| Investing share and return | 50% of the after-tax raise, 7% a year | Placeholders. 7% is roughly the long-run S&P 500 return after inflation; before inflation the index has returned about 10% a year over 1928–2025 (NYU Stern, Damodaran). Because the return is after inflation, the investing results are roughly in today's dollars. Real returns vary year to year and can be negative. |
| Not modelled | State and local tax (unless included in the rate), 401(k) and other deductions, benefits or credits that shrink as income rises, future raises | The 5- and 10-year totals are in today's dollars with no further raises. |
Assumptions last reviewed: October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a 3% raise per paycheck?
Take 3% of your yearly salary and divide it by the number of paychecks you get in a year. On $75,000, a 3% raise is $2,250 a year: about $87 more per biweekly paycheck (26 a year) or about $94 per semi-monthly paycheck (24 a year), before tax. With 30% of the raise going to tax, that is about $61 more per biweekly check, or about $131 a month.
How does a raise calculator with taxes work?
It starts from the raise before tax and takes out the tax on those extra dollars: federal income tax at your top rate, Social Security and Medicare tax (FICA, 7.65% for most employees) and any state income tax. This calculator uses one combined rate that you enter, 30% by default, then shows the tax, the raise after tax and the amount per paycheck. A paycheck calculator that knows your filing status and deductions will be more exact.
Will a raise push me into a higher tax bracket and lower my take-home pay?
No. A higher bracket's rate applies only to the dollars above where that bracket starts, not to all of your income. So a raise in regular pay adds to take-home pay even when part of it lands in a higher bracket. The thing worth checking is any benefit or tax credit that shrinks as income rises, since those can offset part of a raise.
Is a 3% raise good?
It depends on what you compare it with. Against prices, a raise adds buying power only when it is larger than inflation. Consumer prices rose 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so a 3% raise over that year bought slightly less than the old pay did. The calculator's raise after inflation line shows this comparison for your own numbers.
What is a real raise?
A real raise is your raise after inflation: how much more your pay buys, rather than how many more dollars it is. The formula is new salary divided by old salary, divided by (1 + inflation), minus 1. A 5% raise with 3.7% inflation is a real raise of about 1.3%.
Why is my paycheck increase smaller than the calculator shows?
Usually because some deductions grow with your pay. A 401(k) contribution set as a percentage of pay takes the same percentage of the raise, and some benefits are priced by salary. Your tax rate may also differ from the one entered. The first pay stub after the raise shows the exact change.
This calculator is educational. It is not financial, tax, investment or legal advice. The assumptions are simplified; check them against your own situation or a licensed professional before acting on a result. See the Terms of Use.