Pay Raise Calculator
Updated for 2026 tax year · figures checked on
A raise always increases your take-home pay, but by less than the raise itself, because part of it goes to tax. Enter your current salary and your raise as a percent or a dollar amount to see your new gross and take-home pay.
New take-home pay per paycheck
$1,929.22
up $87.65 from $1,841.57
| Per year | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $59,999.94 | $63,000.08 | $3,000.14 |
| Taxes and programs | $12,119.12 | $12,840.36 | $721.24 |
| Take-home pay | $47,880.82 | $50,159.72 | $2,278.90 |
You keep 76.0% of the raise after tax.
Estimates for informational purposes only, based on 2026 withholding rules, with no pre-tax deductions. Your actual paycheck may differ. This is not tax advice.
How a raise is taxed
Federal income tax works in brackets: each slice of your income is taxed at its own rate, and a higher rate applies only to the dollars inside the higher bracket. Employers withhold the same way, using the IRS withholding tables, which follow the same steps.
That's why moving into a higher bracket can't shrink your pay. Take a single filer earning $64,000 who gets a $5,000 raise to $69,000. The withholding table's 22% row starts at $66,500 of salary for this filer, so $2,500 of the raise is withheld at 12% and only $2,500 at 22%. Federal income tax withholding rises by $850 for the year, and the rest of the raise, after Social Security and Medicare, is yours: take-home pay goes from $53,604 to $57,372.
Social Security and Medicare take the same share of every dollar until you pass the Social Security wage base or the Additional Medicare threshold, and state income taxes, where they apply, add their own rate on top.
Source: IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods.
How much of a raise you keep
For a single filer on $60,000 a year in a state with no income tax, a $3,000 raise (5%) adds $2,411 to take-home pay, so you keep about 80.4% of it, or $92.73 more per bi-weekly paycheck. In states with an income tax or payroll programs the share you keep is a little lower; the calculator above shows the figure for your state.
The share you keep shrinks as income rises, because each extra dollar lands in a higher bracket. Here is a 3% raise at five salaries, for a single filer after federal taxes only:
| Salary | Raise | After tax | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $1,200 | $964 | 80.3% |
| $60,000 | $1,800 | $1,446 | 80.4% |
| $80,000 | $2,400 | $1,689 | 70.4% |
| $100,000 | $3,000 | $2,111 | 70.4% |
| $150,000 | $4,500 | $3,076 | 68.3% |
Your first paycheck after a raise can look different from later ones if the raise starts partway through a pay period, or if your employer pays back pay for earlier weeks in one lump. Back pay paid separately may be withheld at the flat rate for supplemental wages, which can look high on that one check.
After a raise
A raise is a good moment to check your Form W-4, especially if it changes your household income a lot, and to decide whether to send part of the raise to a 401(k) before you get used to the higher paycheck. A traditional 401(k) contribution lowers your federal taxable wages, so saving some of the raise costs you less than its face value in take-home pay.
To see your full paycheck after the raise, use your Alabama, Alaska or Arizona paycheck calculator, or find your state on the home page.