Compare old pay with new pay after inflation using Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) annual U.S. city average values through the latest full year: 2025.
A raise sounds like a win by definition, but what matters is whether it outpaced inflation. If prices rose faster than your pay, your paycheck grew while your buying power shrank. This calculator restates your old pay in current-year dollars so you can see the real change, not just the headline percentage.
The line to watch is the change after inflation. A positive number means your new pay genuinely beats rising prices; a negative one means you lost ground despite a bigger paycheck. The “old pay in today's dollars” figure is the reference point — what your previous salary would need to be just to break even with inflation. If your new pay is above it, you're ahead. The monthly figure expresses the same change in budget terms.
Taxes (a higher bracket can trim the gain), local cost-of-living differences (the inflation figure is a national average), and changes to benefits or bonuses bundled with a raise. It compares pre-tax pay against national inflation — the right starting point, but not the whole picture.
Annual averages are the standard for year-over-year comparisons and avoid seasonal noise without changing the practical answer.
Yes — enter the old and new amounts for any income stream; the inflation adjustment works the same way.
The tool uses official BLS CPI-U annual averages, currently available through 2025.