Reference
How to calculate a pay raise, by hand and by tool
Both directions of the formula, the worked example, the biweekly-vs-twice-monthly trap, and how to sanity-check any calculator's answer.
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Take-home figures use the tax rate you entered — not a tax table. For real withholding, ask payroll or a tax professional.
The formula
From percentage to dollars
The math itself is simple enough to do on paper. New salary = current salary × (1 + raise percentage ÷ 100). A $50,000 salary with a 5% raise becomes $50,000 × 1.05 = $52,500. The dollar increase alone is current salary × percentage ÷ 100 = $2,500. To go the other way — you know the new salary and the old one — the raise percentage is (new − old) ÷ old × 100.
Pay periods are straight divisions of the annual figure: monthly is annual ÷ 12, biweekly is annual ÷ 26 (26 paychecks a year, every two weeks), weekly is annual ÷ 52, and hourly is annual ÷ 2,080 — the standard 40 hours × 52 weeks. So the $52,500 becomes $4,375.00 a month, $2,019.23 biweekly, $1,009.61 a week, and $25.24 an hour. Note that biweekly pay is not twice monthly pay: two months a year you get three paychecks, which is why biweekly ($2,019.23) is slightly less than half a month's salary.
Biweekly pay is not twice-monthly pay. Two months a year, biweekly means three paychecks.
Worked example, top to bottom: a $50,000 salary receives a 5% raise. Dollar increase: 50,000 × 5 ÷ 100 = $2,500. New salary: $52,500. Per month: 52,500 ÷ 12 = $4,375.00. Per biweekly period: 52,500 ÷ 26 = $2,019.23. Per week: 52,500 ÷ 52 = $1,009.61. Per hour: 52,500 ÷ 2,080 = $25.24.
The reverse direction
From dollars to a percentage
If you know the old and new salary, the percentage is (new − old) ÷ old × 100. A jump from $58,000 to $61,480 is a $3,480 increase: 3,480 ÷ 58,000 × 100 = exactly 6%. This direction matters when comparing offers — a $5,000 bump is 10% of a $50,000 salary but only 4.2% of a $120,000 one, and employers compare in percentages even when you think in dollars.
After tax
Take-home: the honest version
Gross and net are the two numbers that get confused in raise conversations. Gross is the headline salary. Net — take-home — is what actually lands in your bank account after federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and whatever else applies to you. A $2,500 gross raise does not put $2,500 in your pocket; it puts in roughly $2,500 minus your marginal tax bite.
This page deliberately does the net calculation the only honest way a simple tool can: you tell it your approximate total tax rate, and it applies that. The default is 22%, a common combined marginal ballpark, but yours could easily be 15% or 32% depending on income, state, and filing situation. Real tax withholding depends on brackets, deductions, credits, and pre-tax deductions like 401(k) contributions — a personal calculation, and this page is not tax advice. If you want precision, take the gross numbers to a tax professional or your payroll system.
