Average Raise Percentage in 2026
The most reliable measure of the average US raise is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index, which put wages and salaries for private industry workers up 3.1% over the 12 months ending September 2026. Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months to September 2026. After adjusting for inflation, BLS reported that private-sector wages and salaries fell 0.6% — so the average raise actually lost ground in real terms.
Average raise in 2026 — the headline numbers
| Source | 2026 average raise |
|---|---|
| WTW | 3.5% |
| WorldatWork | 3.6% |
| Mercer | 3.2% merit / 3.5% total |
| Payscale | 3.4% actual / 3.5% projected |
| Gallagher | 3.2–3.3% |
Source: CheckMyRaise, Average Raise Percentage 2026 (https://checkmyraise.com/average-raise-percentage/) — figures compiled from WTW, WorldatWork, Mercer, Payscale and Gallagher employer surveys.
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<table style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><tr><td style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:8px 12px;">Average raise 2026: 3.5% planned (WTW / Mercer / Payscale consensus); BLS ECI actual wage growth 3.1%; CPI inflation 3.7%</td></tr></table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://checkmyraise.com/average-raise-percentage/">CheckMyRaise — Average Raise Percentage 2026</a></p>The current numbers
| Measure | Change | Period covered | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wages and salaries, private industry (ECI) | 3.1% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 30 Oct 2026 |
| Wages and salaries, civilian workers (ECI) | 3.1% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 30 Oct 2026 |
| Total compensation, civilian workers (ECI) | 3.4% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 30 Oct 2026 |
| Inflation-adjusted wages and salaries, private industry | −0.6% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 30 Oct 2026 |
| Consumer prices, all items (CPI-U) | 3.7% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 14 Oct 2026 |
| Consumer prices, excluding food and energy | 2.6% | 12 months ending September 2026 | BLS, released 14 Oct 2026 |
The wage figures and the inflation figures now both run to September 2026. Even so, the honest real-wage number to quote is BLS’s own inflation-adjusted series (−0.6%) rather than subtracting one headline from the other yourself.
“Average raise” means three different things
Most of the conflicting figures you will find come down to people quoting different measures as though they were the same one. There are three, and they answer different questions.
1. Actual wage growth across the economy. This is the Employment Cost Index. It tracks what employers actually pay for the same mix of jobs, so it is not distorted by hiring shifting toward higher- or lower-paid roles. It is the closest thing to a true national average, and it is the 3.1% figure above.
2. Planned salary-increase budgets. Consultancies such as Mercer, WTW, and organisations like SHRM survey employers each year on what they intend to set aside for raises. These are forecasts of budget, not measurements of pay, and they usually separate a smaller merit pool from a larger total increase pool that also covers promotions and market adjustments. They are useful for knowing what your employer is likely working with, but they are projections, and they are typically published behind a registration wall.
3. What an individual actually received. This is the number you care about, and no national average captures it. Your raise depends on your industry, your employer’s budget, your performance rating, whether you changed jobs, and where you live.
What employers plan to give in 2026: the 3.5% survey consensus
Government data measures what already happened to wages. Every year, compensation consultancies survey employers on what they plan to spend on raises — and for 2026, the surveys agree: about 3.5%.
| Source | 2026 figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| WTW Salary Budget Planning Report (Jul 2025; 1,569 US organisations) | 3.5% | Projected 2026 average salary increase budgets (total) |
| WorldatWork 2025–2026 Salary Budget Survey (1,774 organisations) | 3.6% | Projected 2026 mean salary increase budgets |
| Mercer QuickPulse US Compensation Planning Survey (Oct 2025; 1,013 US employers) | 3.2% merit / 3.5% total | Planned 2026 merit budgets and total increase budgets (merit + promotions + cost-of-living + adjustments) |
| Payscale Salary Budget Survey (1,266 submissions, May–Jun 2026) | 3.4% actual 2026 / 3.5% projected 2027 | Average total base-pay increases |
| Gallagher (via WorldatWork) | 3.2–3.3% | Projected 2026 average salary increase budgets |
Why do the surveys say 3.5% while the BLS says 3.1%? They measure different things. The surveys capture planned budgets — what employers intend to spend, including promotion and market-adjustment money. The BLS Employment Cost Index measures actual wage movement over the past 12 months. The two usually rhyme but rarely match exactly. Note the gap inside Mercer’s numbers: the 3.2% merit budget versus the 3.5% total budget is exactly the promotion-and-adjustment slice. Run your own numbers through our pay raise calculator or raise percentage calculator to see what an average raise means for your pay.
2026 raises by industry (Mercer, October 2025)
| Industry | 2026 total budget | 2026 merit budget |
|---|---|---|
| Banking / Financial Services | 3.7% | 3.0% |
| Energy | 3.7% | 3.3% |
| High Tech | 3.7% | — |
| National average | 3.5% | 3.2% |
| Health Care Services | 3.4% | 2.9% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 3.3% | 2.9% |
Banking, energy, and high tech lead at 3.7% total — driven more by promotion and adjustment money than by merit (banking’s merit budget is actually below average at 3.0%). Healthcare and retail trail at 2.9% merit, reflecting cost headwinds in those sectors.
The 2020–2026 trend
| Year | Average raise (US) | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ~3.0% | Pre-pandemic budgeted figure; actuals disrupted by COVID |
| 2021 | 2.8% | Actual granted (WTW) |
| 2022 | 4.2% | Actual spend — Great Resignation peak (WTW) |
| 2023 | 4.4% | Actual — fattest increases in two decades (WTW) |
| 2024 | 3.8% | Awarded (WTW; WorldatWork measured 3.7%) |
| 2025 | 3.5% | Actual (WTW; Payscale 3.6%, WorldatWork 3.7%) |
| 2026 | 3.5% | Projected — WTW, Mercer, Payscale consensus |
The story in one paragraph: raises ran at the sleepy pre-pandemic norm of ~3% through 2021, then exploded as employers fought the Great Resignation and inflation — peaking at 4.4% in 2023. Since 2024 the fever has broken: budgets stepped down to 3.8%, then 3.5%, and have now held flat for three years. The driver has flipped too. In 2022–2023, tight labour markets pushed budgets up; heading into 2026–2027, employers trimming budgets cite economic uncertainty instead (Payscale), while those raising budgets point to improved business performance.
Promotions are the exception to these flat budgets. In Mercer’s October 2025 QuickPulse survey, employers planned an average pay increase of 8.7% for promotions in 2026, while expecting to promote about 9% of their workforce, down from 10% in 2025.
Average raise vs inflation: the number that matters
A raise only makes you better off if it outpaces prices. On the most recent BLS figures, it did not: inflation-adjusted wages and salaries for private industry workers fell 0.6% over the year to September 2026.
That is the reason a 3% raise can feel like a pay cut. If prices rose 3.7% and your pay rose 3%, your purchasing power fell by roughly seven tenths of a percent even though the number on your payslip went up.
The correct way to compare them is as a ratio, not a subtraction:
Real raise = (1 + raise %) ÷ (1 + inflation %) − 1
On a 3% raise against 3.7% inflation, that gives roughly −0.68% — a small real-terms loss. Subtracting the two would have told you −0.7%, which is close enough at these levels but drifts noticeably once either number gets large.
Is your raise above or below average?
Enter your own pay and raise below. The calculator shows the new salary, the change per paycheck, and — if you enter the current inflation rate from the CPI figure above — whether the raise leaves you ahead in real terms.
Fine-tune estimate
For the closest estimate, use the effective deduction percentage from your own pay stub. Inflation default based on: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U (all items, 12-month change) (September 2026).
| Current annual pay | $60,000 |
|---|---|
| Raise amount | $3,000 |
| New annual pay | $63,000 |
| Monthly increase | $250.00 |
| Biweekly increase | $115.38 |
| Five-year gross total | $15,000 |
Uses the effective deduction rate you enter. This is not a payroll or tax calculation.
Using 3.70% inflation, purchasing power increases by about $752 per year.
Show the math
Gross figures are mathematical results based only on the values you enter. This is not a payroll, tax, legal, or financial-advice calculation.
Why your raise may look nothing like the average
Changing jobs. Moving employer has historically produced larger increases than staying put, because an external offer is priced against the current market rather than against your existing salary.
Promotions. A promotion is usually budgeted separately from the annual review pool, which is why promotion increases routinely run well above the merit figure.
Industry and occupation. The national average blends every sector. BLS publishes ECI breakdowns by occupational group and industry, so you can find a figure closer to your own work rather than relying on the headline.
Union and public-sector agreements. Collective agreements often set increases years in advance, so they can lag or lead the private-sector average depending on when the contract was signed.
Cost-of-living adjustments. A COLA is designed to hold your purchasing power flat, not to increase it. If your entire raise is a COLA, matching inflation is the intended outcome rather than a disappointment.
How to check the current figure yourself
Both series are published free by BLS, and they are the primary sources every article on this topic is ultimately quoting.
- Employment Cost Index summary — quarterly. Released in late January, April, July, and October.
- Consumer Price Index summary — monthly, usually mid-month.
In the ECI release, the figure most people mean by “the average raise” is the 12-month, not-seasonally-adjusted change in wages and salaries for private industry workers. In the CPI release, it is the 12-month change in the all-items index before seasonal adjustment.
Related guides: raise vs bonus — which is worth more? and how much of a raise to expect when switching jobs.
Common questions
Against the current figures, anything clearly above 3.1% puts you ahead of the national average for wage growth, and anything above roughly 3.7% keeps your purchasing power intact. Below that, your pay is rising while your buying power slips.
It is close to the current average but, on the most recent inflation reading, slightly behind it in real terms. It is the standard shape of an annual cost-of-living or merit increase rather than a reward for exceptional performance. See exactly what a 3% raise is worth on your salary.
Larger than the average for staying. In September 2026 the median job switcher’s pay was up 4.7% on a year earlier, against 3.4% for people who stayed (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Wage Growth Tracker). Moves out of below-market pay or into bigger roles often land well above that — see how much of a raise to expect when switching jobs.
Two reasons. The raise is added to gross pay and then taxed at your marginal rate, so the visible increase on your payslip is a smaller percentage than the raise itself. And it is spread across every paycheck in the year, so a meaningful annual sum can look modest fortnightly.
No. The ECI and CPI are US series. Other countries publish their own equivalents, and the calculators on this site assume US pay periods and conventions.
They measure different things. Surveys from WTW, Mercer, Payscale, and WorldatWork capture what employers plan to budget for 2026 raises — the consensus is about 3.5% total, or 3.2% for merit increases alone. The BLS Employment Cost Index measures what actually happened to wages over the past 12 months — 3.1% for private industry through September 2026. Plans and outcomes usually rhyme but rarely match exactly.
Expect about 3.5% if your employer’s budget follows the 2026 survey average for total increases, with merit-only budgets averaging 3.2%. Against that, the BLS measured actual wage growth of 3.1% over the year to September 2026. Your own increase will vary with your employer’s budget, your industry, and your performance.
Related guides: cost-of-living raise — what it covers and how it differs from a merit raise — and how much of a raise to ask for before your next review.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index — September 2026 (USDL-26-1620), released 30 October 2026. bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index — September 2026, released 14 October 2026. bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
Figures last checked 2 November 2026. The next Consumer Price Index release (October 2026 data) is due on 10 November 2026, and the next Employment Cost Index release (December 2026 data) on 29 January 2027 — this page is updated when each lands.