Pay Raise Calculator
A 3% raise on $60,000 is $1,800 a year. After 2026 federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and a 5% state tax, you keep $1,356.30 of it, or $52.16 more each paycheck every two weeks.
Last reviewed
Your raise after taxes
You keep each year
$1,356.30
More in each paycheck
$52.16
Your new pay a year
$61,800.00
A 3% raise adds $1,800.00 a year and you keep $1,356.30 of it: $52.16 more in each paycheck every two weeks.
Of the raise, federal tax takes $216.00 at 12%, Social Security and Medicare $137.70 and your state $90.00.
If prices rise 3%, it takes a raise of $1,886.79 (3.14%) to hold your take-home pay's buying power, so this one leaves you $63.50 short.
Your pay could rise another $4,700.00 before any of it is taxed at 22%.
Your pay and your raise
- raise = 3% × $60,000.00 = $1,800.00
- federal = 12% × $1,800.00 = $216.00
- Social Security and Medicare = 7.65% × $1,800.00 = $137.70
- state = 5% × $1,800.00 = $90.00
- you keep = $1,800.00 − $216.00 − $137.70 − $90.00 = $1,356.30
Where each dollar of a raise goes
What your raise buys after inflation
Where your raise goes, check by check
| Line | Each check now | Each check after | Change each check | Change in a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $2,307.69 | $2,376.92 | $69.23 | $1,800.00 |
| Federal income tax | $193.08 | $201.38 | $8.30 | $216.00 |
| Social Security | $143.08 | $147.37 | $4.29 | $111.60 |
| Medicare | $33.46 | $34.47 | $1.01 | $26.10 |
| State and local tax | $115.38 | $118.85 | $3.47 | $90.00 |
| Take-home pay | $1,822.69 | $1,874.85 | $52.16 | $1,356.30 |
Each check is rounded to the cent, so 26 checks bring $1,356.16 more, $0.14 less than the year's $1,356.30. A year of checks at the new pay withholds $5,235.88 of federal income tax; the tax on your pay is $5,236.00.
What each raise is worth on your pay
| Raise | Raise a year | You keep a year | Share you keep | More each check | Buying power after inflation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | $0.00 | $0.00 | — | $0.00 | -$1,380.29 |
| 1% | $600.00 | $452.10 | 75.35% | $17.38 | -$941.36 |
| 2% | $1,200.00 | $904.20 | 75.35% | $34.78 | -$502.43 |
| 3%your raise | $1,800.00 | $1,356.30 | 75.35% | $52.16 | -$63.50 |
| 4% | $2,400.00 | $1,808.40 | 75.35% | $69.56 | $375.44 |
| 5% | $3,000.00 | $2,260.50 | 75.35% | $86.96 | $814.37 |
| 6% | $3,600.00 | $2,712.60 | 75.35% | $104.33 | $1,253.30 |
| 7% | $4,200.00 | $3,164.70 | 75.35% | $121.73 | $1,692.23 |
| 8% | $4,800.00 | $3,616.80 | 75.35% | $139.11 | $2,131.17 |
| 9% | $5,400.00 | $4,068.90 | 75.35% | $156.50 | $2,570.10 |
| 10% | $6,000.00 | $4,521.00 | 75.35% | $173.89 | $3,009.03 |
| 11% | $6,600.00 | $4,963.10 | 75.20% | $190.89 | $3,438.25 |
| 12% | $7,200.00 | $5,355.20 | 74.38% | $205.97 | $3,818.93 |
| 13% | $7,800.00 | $5,747.30 | 73.68% | $221.05 | $4,199.61 |
| 14% | $8,400.00 | $6,139.40 | 73.09% | $236.13 | $4,580.29 |
| 15% | $9,000.00 | $6,531.50 | 72.57% | $251.22 | $4,960.97 |
You keep 75.35% of each raise in this table up to 10%, and 72.57% of a 15% raise. From a 4% raise up, your take-home pay keeps up with 3% inflation.
The same raise at other salaries
| Pay now | Raise a year | You keep a year | Share you keep | Federal rate on the raise | Raise that keeps up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000.00 | $900.00 | $678.15 | 75.35% | 12% | 3.29% |
| $40,000.00 | $1,200.00 | $904.20 | 75.35% | 12% | 3.22% |
| $50,000.00 | $1,500.00 | $1,130.25 | 75.35% | 12% | 3.17% |
| $60,000.00your pay | $1,800.00 | $1,356.30 | 75.35% | 12% | 3.14% |
| $75,000.00 | $2,250.00 | $1,470.37 | 65.35% | 22% | 3.54% |
| $100,000.00 | $3,000.00 | $1,960.50 | 65.35% | 22% | 3.41% |
| $150,000.00 | $4,500.00 | $2,850.75 | 63.35% | 24% | 3.36% |
| $180,000.00 | $5,400.00 | $3,476.70 | 64.38% | 24% | 3.23% |
| $200,000.00 | $6,000.00 | $4,119.00 | 68.65% | 24% | 3.04% |
| $250,000.00 | $7,500.00 | $4,548.75 | 60.65% | 32% | 3.38% |
You keep from 60.65% to 75.35% of a 3% raise across these salaries. The share rises again above $184,500, where Social Security tax stops: 68.65% at $200,000 against 63.35% at $150,000.
How a raise is taxed
A raise is added on top of the pay you already have, so it is taxed at the rates on your last dollars of income. This page works out your whole year's tax twice, at your pay now and at your new pay. The difference is what the raise costs you. Federal income tax uses the 2026 brackets after the standard deduction. Social Security takes 6.2% of pay up to the wage base, Medicare takes 1.45%, and your state takes the rate you enter.
Why a higher bracket never lowers your take-home pay
On its page on federal income tax rates and brackets, the IRS puts it plainly: "When your income jumps to a higher tax bracket, you don't pay the higher rate on your entire income. You pay the higher rate only on the part that's in the new tax bracket." On $60,000, single, your taxable income is $43,900 after the $16,100 standard deduction. That is inside the 12% bracket, which ends at $50,400, so your pay could rise $6,500 before any of it is taxed at 22%. A 15% raise of $9,000 puts $2,500 of it in the 22% bracket, and you still keep $6,531.50.
Why your take-home pay can grow by less than your raise
On $60,000, your take-home pay grows by a smaller percent than your pay does. Taxes take 21.02% of your pay as a whole but 24.65% of a raise. The reason is that the standard deduction and the 10% bracket stay the same size when your pay grows. So a 3% raise lifts your take-home pay by 2.86%, from $47,390.00 to $48,746.30. Those fixed amounts are also why, on this pay, the raise that keeps up with prices is bigger than the inflation rate. Where a raise is taxed at a lower rate than your pay as a whole, it works the other way.
Where Social Security tax stops
Social Security tax stops at the year's wage base, $184,500 in 2026. If a raise carries your pay past it, the part above the base pays no Social Security tax. A 3% raise from $180,000 crosses the base by $900, so you keep 64.38% of it. The same raise from $150,000 keeps 63.35%. On wages above $200,000, your employer also withholds a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax.
Video walkthrough
A 3½-minute walkthrough of how much of a raise you keep after taxes, and whether it keeps up with prices.
Read the transcript
What you keep of a raise
0:00 How much of a raise do you actually keep?
0:03 On a 3% raise on $60,000 a year, you keep about $1,360.
0:10 That's from a raise of $1,800, if you're single, paid every other week, with a state income tax.
0:18 So each paycheck grows by about $52.
Where the rest goes
0:23 Taxes come out of a raise first.
0:25 Federal income tax takes 12%, the rate on your top dollars.
0:30 Social Security and Medicare take a set share.
0:34 And your state takes its rate, 5% in this example.
0:38 Each tax is its rate times the raise.
0:41 Take them all away, and you keep about $1,360.
0:46 That's about 75 cents of each dollar.
0:49 So your take-home pay grows by less than your pay.
0:53 Taxes take about 21% of your pay now, but about 25% of the raise.
0:59 That's because the standard deduction and the lowest bracket don't grow when you do.
When a raise reaches the next bracket
1:05 Now picture every raise from none up to 15%.
1:09 Each one splits the same way: your part, federal tax, Social Security and Medicare, and state tax.
1:17 Past a raise of about 11%, some of it reaches the next bracket, taxed at 22%.
1:24 Your part still grows, only a little more slowly.
1:27 That's because you pay the higher rate only on the part of your income in the new bracket.
1:33 Take a 15% raise.
1:35 Only $2,500 of it is taxed at 22%, and you still keep about $6,530.
1:45 A higher bracket never lowers your take-home pay.
Does it beat rising prices?
1:49 A raise also has to keep up with prices.
1:52 Say prices rise 3% this year.
1:55 Your pay rises 3%, but your take-home pay rises only about 2.9%.
2:02 So this raise leaves you about $60 a year behind.
2:06 On this chart of every raise, the line crosses zero at about 3.1%.
2:12 That's the raise it takes to keep up.
Try your own numbers
2:15 To try your own numbers, enter your pay and your raise.
2:19 If you have an offer, choose to enter your new pay instead.
2:22 Say an offer would pay $65,000.
2:26 The results update as you type, so you can see right away that you'd keep about $3,770.
2:34 You can download each table, and copy a link that keeps your numbers.
Check your first new paycheck
2:39 When the raise starts, check your first new pay stub against this table.
2:44 Gross pay should rise about $69 a check.
2:48 Federal tax, Social Security, Medicare and state tax each rise a little.
2:54 Your take-home pay should rise about $52.
2:58 That's the number to look for on your stub.
3:00 If you're married and you both work, update your W-4, too.
3:05 Each job withholds as if it were your only one.
3:08 The form says the right amount depends on the pay from all of your jobs.
3:13 So plan on your take-home pay, not the raise.
3:16 Know that a higher bracket never cuts your pay.
3:19 And check the raise against prices.
3:22 Try it with your own pay at fastcalc.us.
Pay raise formulas
raise = pay now × raise % raise % = (new pay − pay now) ÷ pay now pay a year, by the hour = hourly pay × hours a week × 52 taxable income = pay − traditional 401(k) + other household income − standard deduction federal tax = the 2026 rate schedule on taxable income, at your pay now and at your new pay Social Security = 6.2% × pay up to $184,500 Medicare = 1.45% × pay, + 0.9% over the threshold take-home pay = pay − 401(k) − federal − Social Security − Medicare − state you keep = take-home pay at the new pay − take-home pay now buying power = take-home pay at the new pay ÷ (1 + inflation) − take-home pay now standard deduction (2026): $16,100 single, $32,200 married filing jointly, $24,150 head of household
Worked examples
A raise in dollars. Say your boss offers $5,000 more a year on your $60,000. That is an 8.33% raise. You keep $3,767.50 of it with the default taxes, or $144.91 more each paycheck every two weeks. A raise that size still stays in the 12% bracket, with $1,500.00 to spare.
An offer with a new salary. Say your pay would go from $80,000 to $86,000. That is a 7.5% raise of $6,000. Your taxable income is already in the 22% bracket, so you keep $3,921.00 of it, or 65.35%, and $150.82 more each paycheck.
Saving part of the raise. Say you put 6% of your pay into a traditional 401(k). Of an $1,800 raise, $108.00 more goes into your account each year and stays yours. Your take-home pay rises $1,266.66. The 401(k) also lowers the tax on the raise, so taxes take $425.34 instead of $443.70.
Check the raise on your pay stub and W-2
Your first paycheck at the new pay is the place to check. An employer with an automated payroll system works out federal income tax with the IRS percentage method, Worksheet 1A of Publication 15-T. Paid every two weeks, it multiplies your check by 26, takes off $8,600 for a single filer and applies the 2026 table. That is for a 2020 or later Form W-4 with nothing in Steps 2 to 4. On $2,376.92 every two weeks that is $201.38, up $8.30 from $193.08. Social Security should rise $4.29 and Medicare $1.01.
Over a year those checks withhold $5,235.88 of federal tax, 12 cents less than the $5,236.00 the rate schedule gives. The table builds in the whole $16,100 standard deduction: the $8,600, plus a 0% row up to $7,500. So with one job, no other income and no 401(k), a year of withholding comes within $1 of the tax the rate schedule gives.
Next year's W-2 shows the raise in four boxes. Box 1 is your wages less 401(k) savings: the W-2 instructions say not to include "elective deferrals (such as employee contributions to a section 401(k) or 403(b) plan)". Boxes 3 and 5 keep them in. On $61,800 with a 6% 401(k), box 1 shows $58,092.00, box 12 with code D shows $3,708.00, and boxes 3 and 5 show $61,800.00.
When a raise works differently
If you are married and both work
If you both work, each employer withholds as if its job were your only income. Form W-4 warns that "The correct amount of withholding depends on income earned from all of these jobs." Say you earn $61,800 after a 3% raise and your spouse earns $60,000. Your two jobs withhold $5,896.02 of federal tax in a year, but your joint tax is $10,256.00, so you would owe $4,359.98 when you file. The W-4 multiple jobs worksheet calculator works out the extra to withhold.
If a credit shrinks as you earn more
Some credits shrink as your pay rises, and then a raise costs you more than its tax. The earned income credit is one. For a single parent with one child, the 2026 credit starts to shrink at $23,890 of earned income and is gone at $51,593. In that range each extra dollar takes 15.98 cents off the credit. The earned income credit calculator shows how much of yours you would lose.
If it is a bonus, not a raise
A bonus is paid once and does not lift your pay in later years. Your employer may withhold federal tax on it at a flat 22%, whatever your bracket. The bonus tax calculator works out what a bonus leaves you.
If the raise starts partway through the year
A raise that starts in July adds only the part of the year that is left. Paid monthly, 6 of your 12 checks carry it, so a 3% raise on $60,000 adds $900.00 to this year's pay and the full $1,800.00 next year. Each check changes by the same amount either way. The hourly wage calculator turns the new pay into an hourly, weekly or monthly figure.
Assumptions and limits
- Both sides of the raise use the 2026 federal rules: the brackets and standard deduction of Rev. Proc. 2025-32, and the year's federal tax figured from the rate schedule to the cent. A raise that starts in 2027 will meet that year's brackets, which are not out yet.
- You take the standard deduction and claim no credits. Other household income you enter counts toward your bracket; on a joint return it is taken to be your spouse's wages.
- Your state tax is one flat rate on your pay less the 401(k). In a state with brackets, use the rate on your top dollars; the result is then close but not exact.
- The 401(k) percent is traditional, before tax, and stops at the 2026 limit. Catch-up savings above the limit, which older workers may add, are left out, as are health premiums and other deductions taken before tax.
- The raise lasts a full year. Each paycheck shown is one early in the year; once your pay for the year passes the wage base, later checks have no Social Security tax, and the year's figures count that.
- Married filing separately: choose Single. The brackets are the same up to $384,350 of taxable income, but your Additional Medicare Tax starts at $125,000 of wages, not $200,000.
- Buying power divides your new take-home pay by 1 plus inflation. The 3% default is an assumption, not a forecast.
- The defaults are an example, not typical figures. Your pay now can run up to $2,000,000 a year, or $1,000 an hour for up to 80 hours a week. A raise can run up to 100%, $2,000,000 a year or $1,000 an hour, and new pay up to $4,000,000 a year or $2,000 an hour.
These figures are estimates for learning and planning, not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Terms of use.
What to do with your raise
Check your first paycheck at the new pay against the pay stub table above. On the default inputs your take-home pay should rise $52.16 a check. If the federal line looks wrong, the federal paycheck withholding calculator redoes your employer's arithmetic.
Weigh the raise against prices before you accept it. At 3% inflation it takes a raise of $1,886.79 to keep your take-home pay's buying power under this year's rules. The CPI inflation calculator shows how prices moved over any span of months.
Save part of it before you get used to it. If you already put 5% of your pay into a 401(k), 5% of the raise, $90.00, goes in too, and your take-home pay still rises $1,281.60. The 401(k) calculator shows what saving like that grows to.
If you and your spouse both work, update your Form W-4. The form asks for a new one "when changes to your personal or financial situation would change the entries on the form." In the case above, the two jobs fall $4,359.98 short, which the W-4 multiple jobs worksheet calculator spreads over your paychecks.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a 3% raise on $60,000 a year?
It is $1,800 a year, or $150 a month before tax. After the default taxes you keep $1,356.30 of it, so a monthly paycheck grows $113.02 and a weekly one $26.09.
What is a 3% raise on $20 an hour?
It is 60 cents an hour, for $20.60. At 40 hours a week that is $1,248 more a year before tax. With the default taxes you keep $940.36 of it, or $36.16 more each paycheck every two weeks.
What is a 5% raise on a $60,000 salary?
It is $3,000 a year, taking your salary to $63,000. With the default taxes you keep $2,260.50 of it, or $86.96 more each paycheck every two weeks.
How do I calculate my pay raise percentage?
Divide the raise by your old pay: (new pay − old pay) ÷ old pay. Going from $50,000 to $52,500 is $2,500 ÷ $50,000, a 5% raise. Choose Your new pay in the form and the page works out the percent for you.
Will a raise push me into a higher tax bracket and lower my take-home pay?
It can reach a higher bracket, but it cannot lower your take-home pay through the brackets. Take $115,000 and a 10% raise: $4,700.00 of it lands in the 24% bracket. You still keep $7,421.25 of the $11,500 raise.
How much of my raise goes to taxes?
On $60,000 with a 5% state tax, taxes take 24.65% of a raise. The share grows with pay: 34.65% on $100,000 and 39.35% on $250,000, in the 32% bracket. It dips above $184,500, where Social Security tax stops.
Is a 3% raise really a raise?
Only if your take-home pay grows faster than prices. Consumer prices rose 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2026. At that rate a 3% raise on $60,000 leaves your take-home pay $382.96 a year behind in buying power; it would take a raise of 3.88% to keep up.
What is a good pay raise in 2026?
One that beats inflation after tax. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index shows private-industry wages and salaries up 3.1% in the 12 months to September 2026. On $60,000 a 3.1% raise keeps $1,401.51, which is $19.60 short of 3% inflation in buying power.
Sources
- IRS, Rev. Proc. 2025-32, 2026 inflation adjustments (page modified Oct 17, 2025)
- IRS, Federal income tax rates and brackets (page reviewed Jul 27, 2026)
- IRS, Publication 15 (2026), Employer's Tax Guide (page reviewed Apr 30, 2026)
- IRS, Publication 15-T (2026), Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods (page reviewed Apr 30, 2026)
- IRS, Topic no. 560, Additional Medicare Tax (page reviewed Oct 9, 2026)
- IRS, General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 (2026) (page reviewed Apr 30, 2026)
- IRS, Form W-4 (2026), Employee's Withholding Certificate (page modified Dec 11, 2025)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index news release, September 2026 (current version)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index news release, September 2026 (current version)
More in Income and Tax Calculators and Finance Calculators.