Your 3.0% raise is actually a 0.50% pay cut in real terms.
Nominal new salary
$77,250.00
+$2,250.00 nominal
Real purchasing power
$74,625.00
-$375.00 real
Real raise %
-0.50%
raise − inflation
Budgeting
Real Raise Calculator
Find out if your salary raise actually beats inflation. See your real purchasing power change, year-by-year projection, and a plain-English verdict.
Salary Projection
Nominal vs real purchasing power over time
Year 1Year 3Year 5
Nominal salary
$86,945.56
Real purchasing power
$73,205.82
How to use it
- Enter current salary, raise percent, inflation percent, and projection years. Use salary alone unless benefits are also rising, because benefit cuts can erase a raise that looks good on paper.
- Read nominal new salary, real purchasing power, and nominal gain dollars together. A quick approximation is real raise about nominal raise minus inflation, so a 5% raise in 3% inflation is only about a 2% real gain.
- Any raise below inflation is a real pay cut even if your paycheck is larger. A raise barely above inflation can still leave you behind if insurance, rent, or childcare costs rose faster than CPI.
- Use the real result when negotiating, changing savings rates, or deciding whether a new job offer is truly better. Then test the effect on your budget or retirement contributions in the 50-30-20 budget or retirement calculator.
- Re-run when CPI assumptions change, benefits costs change, or you receive a new offer. Track real salary growth, not just nominal salary growth.
AI Integrations
Contract, discovery endpoints, and developer notes for agent use.
Always available for agents
AI Integrations
Contract, discovery endpoints, and developer notes for agent use.
Tool contract JSON
https://aifinhub.io/contracts/real-raise-calculator.jsonStable input and output contract for this exact tool.
Human review
People can use the browser page to sense-check outputs and charts, but agents should still execute against the contract and discovery endpoints.
- /agent-tools.json - machine-readable tool index.
- /llms.txt - human-readable model discovery guide.
- /.well-known/webmcp.json - WebMCP capabilities manifest.
- /.well-known/ai-plugin.json - plugin-style discovery manifest.
{
"tool": "real_raise_calculator",
"current_salary": 75000,
"raise_percent": 3,
"inflation_percent": 3.5,
"years": 5
} Expand developer notes
Agent playbook
- Resolve Real Raise Calculator from /agent-tools.json and open its contract before execution.
- Validate inputs against the contract schema instead of scraping labels from the page UI.
- Open the browser page only when a person wants to review charts, assumptions, or related tools.
Agent FAQ
Should ChatGPT, Claude, or another agent click through the UI?
No. Start with /agent-tools.json, then follow the tool's contract URL. The page UI is for human review, not parameter discovery.
When do tools show Quick and Advanced?
Every tool opens in Quick Start first. Advanced Controls keeps the same scenario, reveals more assumptions or diagnostics, and every tool keeps AI integrations inline below the instructions.
When should an agent still open the browser page?
Open it when a human wants to sense-check the output, review the chart, or keep exploring related tools after the calculation finishes.
Questions people usually ask
What is a 'real' raise?
A real raise is your salary increase after subtracting inflation. If you got a 3% raise but inflation is 3.5%, your real raise is -0.5% — a small pay cut in purchasing power terms.
Why does the calculator default to 3.5% inflation?
3.5% reflects a conservative but realistic assumption for US inflation in recent years. You can adjust it to match current CPI data or your local cost-of-living changes.
What does 'real purchasing power' mean?
It's your new salary in today's dollars — what your raise actually buys you after accounting for how much more expensive things are.
How is the multi-year projection calculated?
Each year compounds both your raise (applied annually) and inflation, showing you how the gap between nominal salary and real purchasing power widens over time.
Is this professional advice?
No. Outputs are planning estimates only — not financial, tax, or investment advice.
Related Resources
Learn the decision before you act
Every link here is tied directly to Real Raise Calculator. Use the explanation, formula, examples, and benchmarks to pressure-test the calculator output from first principles.
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