Salary inflation calculator: did your pay keep up?
Enter what you earned in an earlier year and what you earn now to see whether your pay kept up with rising prices, how big a raise you needed to stand still, and what your pay is worth in real terms. It works for annual salaries, monthly pay, weekly pay or hourly wages, from any year since 1913 or any month since January 1999, using the official US consumer price index (CPI-U) to September 2026.
Updated 4 November 2026. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). Monthly chart and full data: US inflation tracker. Key figures: US inflation statistics. What any sum of money is worth today: US inflation calculator.
To keep up with inflation, $50,000.00 a year in 2020 would need to be $65,093.83 a year in September 2026, a raise of 30.2%. Prices rose 30.2% between the two dates, an average rise of 4.3% a year.
Worked example
Someone paid $60,000 a year in January 2021 who now earns $72,000 (a 20% raise): To keep up with inflation, $60,000.00 a year in January 2021 would need to be $77,285.13 a year in September 2026, a raise of 28.8%. Prices rose 28.8% between the two dates, an average rise of 4.6% a year. Your pay went from $60,000.00 to $72,000.00, a raise of 20.0%. After inflation your pay is 6.8% lower in real terms: you are $5,285.13 a year behind inflation. Your current pay buys what $55,896.91 bought in January 2021. Your pay grew an average of 3.3% a year.
The raise needed to keep up with inflation, by year
The second column is how much average prices rose in each year, which is the raise needed that year just to keep the same buying power. The last two columns show what a $50,000 salary from that year needs to be in September 2026, and the total raise that implies. Each row has its own link, for example #year-2020.
| Year | Prices rose that year | $50,000 then needs to be, September 2026 | Raise needed since then |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 * | 2.6% | $52,329.14 | 4.7% |
| 2024 | 2.9% | $53,706.06 | 7.4% |
| 2023 | 4.1% | $55,290.09 | 10.6% |
| 2022 | 8.0% | $57,566.08 | 15.1% |
| 2021 | 4.7% | $62,172.93 | 24.3% |
| 2020 | 1.2% | $65,093.83 | 30.2% |
| 2019 | 1.8% | $65,896.89 | 31.8% |
| 2018 | 2.4% | $67,090.92 | 34.2% |
| 2017 | 2.1% | $68,729.60 | 37.5% |
| 2016 | 1.3% | $70,193.79 | 40.4% |
| 2015 | 0.1% | $71,079.29 | 42.2% |
| 2014 | 1.6% | $71,163.66 | 42.3% |
| 2013 | 1.5% | $72,318.07 | 44.6% |
| 2012 | 2.1% | $73,377.35 | 46.8% |
| 2011 | 3.2% | $74,895.86 | 49.8% |
| 2010 | 1.6% | $77,259.97 | 54.5% |
| 2009 | −0.4% | $78,527.25 | 57.1% |
| 2008 | 3.8% | $78,247.86 | 56.5% |
| 2007 | 2.9% | $81,252.23 | 62.5% |
| 2006 | 3.2% | $83,569.78 | 67.1% |
| 2005 | 3.4% | $86,265.69 | 72.5% |
| 2004 | 2.7% | $89,192.78 | 78.4% |
| 2003 | 2.3% | $91,580.69 | 83.2% |
| 2002 | 1.6% | $93,659.49 | 87.3% |
| 2001 | 2.8% | $95,144.78 | 90.3% |
| 2000 | 3.4% | $97,833.91 | 95.7% |
| 1999 | 2.2% | $101,137.63 | 102.3% |
| 1998 | 1.6% | $103,350.76 | 106.7% |
| 1997 | 2.3% | $104,954.62 | 109.9% |
| 1996 | 2.9% | $107,408.35 | 114.8% |
| 1995 | 2.8% | $110,556.95 | 121.1% |
| 1994 | 2.6% | $113,658.29 | 127.3% |
| 1993 | 3.0% | $116,622.13 | 133.2% |
| 1992 | 3.0% | $120,063.86 | 140.1% |
| 1991 | 4.2% | $123,700.36 | 147.4% |
| 1990 | 5.4% | $128,939.67 | 157.9% |
* The 2025 average uses the 11 months BLS published for that year: no index value was released for October 2025, when price collection stopped during the federal government shutdown.
Key figures
- Prices rose 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2026, so pay had to rise by 3.7% over that year just to keep up: a $50,000 salary in September 2025 needs to be $51,868.84 in September 2026. #
- Over the five years since September 2021 prices rose 22.8%, an average of 4.2% a year. Someone earning $50,000 then needs $61,415.92 in September 2026 to buy the same things. #
- A $50,000 salary in 2020 has the same buying power as $65,093.83 in September 2026: a raise of 30.2% was needed to keep pace. #
- A $50,000 salary in 2000 has the same buying power as $97,833.91 in September 2026, a 95.7% rise in prices. #
- Since 1990 the largest yearly rise in average prices was 8.0%, in 2022: that year a raise of at least 8.0% was needed just to stand still. In 2009 average prices fell 0.4%, the smallest change in that period. #
Cite or link to this calculator
HR teams, unions, career writers, teachers and students are welcome to use and link to this calculator. Each year in the table and each key figure has its own link.
How the calculator works
The pay needed to keep up with inflation is the earlier pay multiplied by the ratio of two consumer price index values: the later date over the earlier one. Your real pay change compares your current pay with that figure. For whole years the calculator uses the calendar-year average of the twelve monthly CPI-U values, all items, US city average, before seasonal adjustment (1982 to 1984 = 100); for the current year it uses the latest published month. Monthly comparisons are available from January 1999. Average yearly rates are compound rates between the middle of each period.
The CPI-U measures prices paid by urban consumers as a whole, so your own cost of living can rise faster or slower depending on where you live and what you buy. The calculator compares pay before tax and does not account for changes in taxes, benefits or hours. Calculations are by ClarionBrief and can differ from other calculators by a rounding difference. Figures are refreshed with each monthly CPI release.