Salary Inflation Calculator

Official data verified · U.S. CPI-U · Annual average · NSA · Data through September 2026 (fetched 2026-11-02) · Series CUUR0000SA0

A raise that merely matches inflation is not a raise. Find the salary you need in a later year just to keep the buying power of an earlier one.

Salary in the earlier year

That salary was in

Compare with year

Your salary now (optional — see whether you are ahead or behind)

What would you like to explore next?

Did your salary keep up? → What rose fastest since 2020? → What will this be worth in 10 years? → Purchasing power loss breakdown →

How to use the result

The figure shown is the keep-up line: the salary that buys the same basket of goods and services as your earlier salary did. Anything below it is a real-terms pay cut, even if the number on the payslip went up. The calculation uses annual-average CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted — the same basis commonly used in cost-of-living adjustments. Your personal inflation may differ if your spending is concentrated in categories that rose faster, such as rent or tuition.

Cite this page

<ref>{{cite web |title=Salary Inflation Calculator |url=https://inflationrecord.com/salary-inflation-calculator/ |publisher=Inflation Record |access-date=2026-11-02 |quote=Salary Inflation Calculator, Inflation Record. Keep-up figures use annual-average U.S. CPI-U (Bureau of Labor Statistics series CUUR0000SA0), not seasonally adjusted.}}</ref>