Real take-home pay from every raise

Your Raise Is Smaller Than You Think

A 10,000 gross raise rarely means 10,000 more in your bank account. After income tax, any applicable regional or local tax, payroll and social-insurance contributions, and potentially losing some means-tested tax credits, the real take-home increase is typically 60–75% of the gross raise. This calculator shows the real number.

What People Often Overlook

Many people focus purely on the gross figure when negotiating a raise, which is completely understandable. It is the number on the offer letter, after all. But it can help to think about what actually lands in your account each month. A jump from 60,000 to 70,000 sounds significant, and it is — though the monthly difference in take-home pay may be more modest than expected. This is worth considering when weighing up a new role, a promotion, or even a cost-of-living increase. Getting a clearer picture before you make any decisions tends to be time well spent.

How Your Marginal Rate Fits In

Your marginal tax rate is the rate applied to the last portion of your income — not your entire salary. Many people find this concept a little confusing at first, and that is perfectly normal. One approach is to think of it as the tax rate that applies specifically to your raise, rather than everything you earn. The higher your income, the higher that marginal rate tends to be. Plugging your figures into this calculator can help illustrate just how much of your raise you are likely to keep.

A worked example

Try the defaults: current annual salary of 65,000, new annual salary of 72,000, marginal tax rate of 22. The tool returns 455.00. You can adjust any input and the result updates as you type — no submit button, no reload. That's the real power here: seeing how sensitive the output is to one or two assumptions.

What moves the number most

The result responds to Current Annual Salary, New Annual Salary, and Marginal Tax Rate. Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

The formula behind this

This calculator applies the formula T = (N - C) × (1 - R/100) to estimate the take-home pay increase from a raise. It subtracts current compensation from the new salary, then applies an effective tax rate to determine net additional income. Results are estimates based on provided tax assumptions and do not account for state taxes, deductions, or benefit changes. Everything the calculator does is shown in the formula box below, so you can check the math against your own spreadsheet if you want.

What the headline number hides

Gross pay, net pay, and what actually lands in your account can differ by thousands depending on tax code, benefits, pension contributions, and student loan deductions. This tool isolates one piece of that picture — always pair it with a take-home calculator for the full view.

What this doesn't capture

Tax bands, pension contributions, student-loan deductions, and benefits-in-kind sit outside this calculation. The figure is the headline; your actual position depends on local tax rules and personal circumstances. Pair with a dedicated take-home calculator for the full picture.