How to Calculate a Salary Increase Percentage

A raise is a percent change with a payslip attached. The base is last year’s agreed salary, not the household budget, not the midpoint of a band, and not the number after tax unless you deliberately switch the conversation to take-home pay. Keep those bases apart and the percentage stops being a mood.

The raise itself

Percent raise = (new − old) / old × 100

€40,000 to €44,000. Gap = €4,000. 4000 / 40000 = 10%.

€57,500 to €60,000. Gap = €2,500. 2500 / 57500 ≈ 4.35%. Quoting this as “about 4%” is fine in a kitchen and sloppy in a counter-offer. 4% of 57,500 is €2,300, so a €2,500 raise is a bit more than 4%. The percentage change calculator earns its keep on the awkward salaries.

Going the other way — you were promised 6% and you want the new gross:

new = old × (1.06)

€3,200 a month × 1.06 = €3,392. The monthly increase is €192. Annualized, if there are 12 equal months and no thirteenth-month quirk, that is €2,304 a year. If your contract pays 14 months, multiply by 14, not by 12, before you compare with an annual offer from another employer. The percent is the same; the cash is not, because the base “annual” was defined differently.

What people accidentally divide by

The right-hand column answers “what percent of my new salary is the raise?” which can be interesting and is not what an employer means by “a 10% raise.” Notice that a 10% raise is undone by about a 9.09% cut, not by a 10% cut. Reverse percentages is the same asymmetry.

Bonus, equity, and “total compensation”

A 10% raise on a €50,000 salary is €5,000. A 10% raise on a €5,000 bonus is €500. If someone says “we increased compensation 10%” while lifting only the bonus, the salary might be flat. Compute the percent on the slice that changed, and compute a separate percent on the total if the total is what you are comparing across jobs.

Total last year: €50,000 salary + €5,000 bonus = €55,000. This year: €50,000 + €8,000 = €58,000. Overall change = 3000 / 55000 ≈ 5.45%. The bonus itself rose 60%. Both sentences are true. The overall one is the one that pays the rent. Do not let the 60% stand in for the year.

Hourly to salaried comparisons need a shared hour count. €22 an hour for 1,800 hours is €39,600. A salary of €42,000 is about 6.1% more money and might be fewer or more hours. A percent on the hourly rate (€22 to €24 is about 9.1%) ignores unpaid overtime. If hours changed, the honest comparison is annual cash over annual hours, then a percent change between those effective rates.

Tax and the raise that shrinks

Gross-to-net is not a single percent you can reuse, because tax brackets and social contributions are often progressive. A 10% gross raise does not become a 10% net raise in general. It might land close, or a slice of it might be taxed at a higher marginal rate so the net increase is a smaller percent of net pay.

Example shape, not a Portugal or US filing: suppose you take home 70% of a €40,000 gross (net €28,000) and, after a raise to €44,000, you take home 68% because more of the income sits in a higher band (net €29,920). Net rose by €1,920, which is 6.9% of the old net, while gross rose 10%. I invented the 70% and 68% to show the bookkeeping. Your real percentages belong to your country’s payroll rules — for Portugal-specific salary estimates, Ricardo points people to the sister site Portugal Net Pay. PercentBox will not invent a bracket table. It will insist you run the percent on the base you claim to be talking about. If the argument is “my lifestyle,” the base is net. If the argument is “what did the employer add,” the base is gross.

Inflation beside the raise

A 4% raise in a year when consumer prices rose about 4% is a real-terms standstill, roughly. A 4% raise when inflation was 2% is about a 2% gain in purchasing power, using the shortcut real ≈ nominal − inflation. That shortcut is a small-rate approximation. The more careful version divides factors: (1.04 / 1.02) − 1 ≈ 1.96%. Inflation and percent change shows when the shortcut is enough. Neither version knows your personal inflation — rent, childcare, a commute — which can diverge from a national index. Use the index to stop yourself calling a below-inflation raise a win. Use your own bills to decide whether the index matches your life.

When to use the calculators

Use the percentage increase calculator when HR gives you a percent and you want the new gross before you celebrate. Use the change calculator when both salaries are known and you want the percent that was actually delivered, including the awkward 4.35% cases.

Offers that are not on the same base

Employer A offers €36,000 for 12 payments. Employer B offers €3,150 a month for 13 payments, a structure some contracts use. B’s annual cash is 3150 × 13 = €40,950, which is (40950 − 36000) / 36000 ≈ 13.75% more than A, not “€150 more a month” as a lifestyle summary. Per month, if you naively compare 36,000/12 = €3,000 with €3,150, B looks 5% higher per paycheck and the thirteenth payment is invisible. Quote the annual cash percent and the monthly cash separately. They answer different questions (“what hits my account this month” versus “what is the offer worth over a year”).

A percent raise on A’s structure does not transport. Ten percent on €36,000 is €39,600 a year. Ten percent on B’s monthly rate is €3,465 × 13 = €45,045. Comparing “both got 10%” without the base is how two colleagues misread each other’s news.

Do the bonus and the salary as separate rows if either one can be quoted alone in a way that flatters the package. Subtract nothing for inflation until you have said the nominal percent out loud. They are two sentences: what the employer paid, and what prices did. Collapsing them into one unlabeled percent is how a cost-of-living adjustment gets described as generosity, or a real raise gets described as nothing. The percentage increase calculator applies one rate to one base. Run it twice if you have two bases. Do not average the resulting percents.