Raise Percentage Chart: How Much Is a 1% to 30% Raise?

A raise of X% adds X hundredths of your current pay. On a $50,000 salary, a 3% raise is $1,500 a year, a 4% raise is $2,000 and a 5% raise is $2,500 — about $57.69, $76.92 and $96.15 more in each biweekly paycheck before deductions. Find your raise in the chart, then read across to the salary closest to yours.

Quick method: move the decimal point two places left and multiply. A 3% raise is 0.03 × your salary; a 2.5% raise is 0.025 × your salary. Add the result to your current pay for the new figure.

Raise percentage chart: extra pay per year

Each raise in your paycheck (on a $50,000 salary)

The same yearly increase divided by how often you are paid. Paid every two weeks is 26 paychecks a year; twice a month is 24.

How much is a raise per hour?

If you are paid hourly, the percentage applies to your rate. These are the extra dollars per hour; multiply by 2,080 for a full-time year.

Try it with your own salary

Is my raise good? What each size of raise usually means

A percentage on its own says little. What it usually signals — and what to do about it — changes with its size. Compare it against inflation over the same period too: if prices rose faster than your pay, your purchasing power fell.

Around 1%

An increase this small is usually a token adjustment rather than a considered decision about your pay. In most years it will be comfortably below inflation, which means it is not really a raise at all in purchasing-power terms — it slows the decline rather than reversing it. Where a company applies this across the board, it is generally a signal about the budget rather than about you.

The practical response is to find out what drove it. If the whole company received the same, the conversation to have is about the review cycle rather than this number. If it was specific to you and you were expecting more, ask what the increase was based on and what would have produced a different result — that answer is worth more than the difference in this year's pay.

2% to 2.5%

This sits at the low end of standard annual adjustments. It is the kind of figure that appears when a raise pool exists but is tight, and in most recent years it has trailed inflation. It is worth establishing whether this was the company-wide number or specific to you, because the answer changes what a conversation about it can achieve.

Treat this as a prompt to benchmark rather than as an outcome to argue about. Increases at this level are usually set by a pool rather than by your manager, so the leverage is not in this year's review — it is in knowing what your role pays elsewhere before the next one. Two or three years of increases at this size is where a genuine market gap opens up.

3% to 3.5%

Raises of this size are the most common shape of a standard annual or cost-of-living adjustment. Whether it leaves you better off depends entirely on inflation over the same period: if prices rose faster, your pay went up while your purchasing power went down. That comparison, not the percentage itself, is the number worth checking.

If this is your whole annual increase, the useful question is not whether to accept it — it is usually applied, not negotiated — but whether your pay is drifting behind the market. A raise at this level roughly holds position in a normal year and quietly loses ground in an expensive one. Check what your role now pays elsewhere before your next review, because the gap that matters builds over several years of small increases rather than in any single one.

4% to 5%

This is the range most often described as a merit increase — tied to performance rather than applied across the board. It usually clears typical inflation, but only comfortably in low-inflation years, so it is still worth running the comparison rather than assuming.

An increase in this range is worth confirming the basis of. Ask whether it reflects your performance rating, a company-wide budget, or a market adjustment, because the answer tells you what is available next time and what evidence would move it. If it came with a rating you disagree with, that conversation is more valuable than arguing about the percentage itself.

6% to 7%

An increase of this size is above what most annual review cycles hand out. It typically reflects a strong performance review, a retention decision, or an adjustment after your pay fell behind the market rate for your role.

A raise this size usually means someone made a case for you, so it is worth finding out who and why. If it followed a competing offer or a retention conversation, check that your new figure actually reaches the market rate rather than merely closing part of the gap — retention raises are often sized to keep you rather than to correct your position fully.

8% to 10%

Increases approaching double digits are rare as a routine annual award. They usually mark a step change: a promotion, an expanded remit, or a deliberate correction after your pay drifted below the market. Where they are given to retain someone, they tend to be sized against a competing offer rather than against last year's salary.

Establish what the increase is buying before you celebrate it. If it comes with a new title or a wider remit, the fair comparison is against what that role pays elsewhere, not against your previous salary. If it arrived without any change in responsibilities, it is likely a market correction — useful to know, because it tells you your pay had fallen behind and may do so again.

11% to 15%

An increase in this range is almost always attached to something structural rather than to an annual review — a promotion, a change of employer, or a correction after several years without meaningful movement. It is large enough that the total compensation package, not just base pay, is worth examining before you judge it.

Look at the whole package rather than the headline. Increases of this size often come alongside a changed bonus target, a different equity schedule, or a reset review date that delays your next raise by a year. Any of those can materially change what the increase is actually worth over two years, and none of them show up in the percentage.

20% or more

Increases of this size are exceptional and rarely arrive without a corresponding change in what is expected of you. They typically accompany a significant promotion, a move to a different employer or market, or a long-overdue correction. Treat the new figure as a new baseline to be judged against the market rate for the role, not as a percentage gain on the old one.

Before accepting an increase this large, look at what comes with it. Promotions and counter-offers often bring a wider remit, a different bonus structure, or a reset review cycle, and the headline percentage can hide a change in total compensation. Compare the whole package against the market rate for the new role — not against what you used to earn, which is no longer the relevant benchmark.

What a raise is worth over five years

Raises compound, because each one is applied to a salary that already includes the last. This is the same raise repeated for five years on $50,000:

That is why a raise usually beats a one-off bonus of the same first-year value: the bonus pays once, the raise becomes the base every later increase is calculated from.

If the raise starts partway through the year

The yearly figures assume the new rate applies all twelve months. A raise that starts in July only reaches the remaining paychecks, so this calendar year you receive roughly half the yearly amount — then the full amount every year after.

Every figure on this page is gross pay — the amount before income tax, insurance, and retirement contributions are deducted. What reaches your bank account depends on your filing status, location, and benefit elections, none of which this page knows.

Related

• Dollar raise chart: $0.25 to $10 an hour
• Hourly to salary chart
• Salary to hourly chart
• What is the average raise right now?
• Check a raise against inflation

Common questions

How much is a 3% raise on $50,000?

$1,500 a year, taking the salary to $51,500. Paid every two weeks that is about $57.69 more per paycheck, or $125 more a month, before deductions.

How do I calculate a percentage raise?

Multiply your current pay by the raise written as a decimal (3% is 0.03), then add the result to your current pay. New pay = current pay × (1 + raise ÷ 100).

How much is a 5% raise per hour?

Multiply your hourly rate by 0.05. On $20 an hour that is $1.00 more per hour, or $2,080 more a year at 40 hours a week.

Will I see the full raise in my paycheck?

No. The raise is added to your gross pay and taxed at your marginal rate, so the change in take-home pay is smaller than the figures in these charts.

Does my raise keep up with inflation?

Only if inflation over the same period was lower. Compare them as a ratio: (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. A negative result means your purchasing power fell despite the raise.