How the calculation works
Comparing two salaries from different years with raw numbers is comparing two different currencies — a 2015 dollar and a 2025 dollar don't buy the same basket of groceries, rent, and gas. To put them on the same footing, the calculator rescales your old salary by the ratio of price levels between the two years:
Adjusted salary = old salary × (CPIlater year ÷ CPIearlier year)
That adjusted figure is what your old pay is "worth" in later-year dollars. Everything else follows from it: your real change is your actual current salary measured against the adjusted figure, and the per-year line annualizes that gap so a 10-year comparison and a 3-year comparison can be read on the same scale.
How to adjust a salary for inflation, step by step
If you want to reproduce the calculation by hand — say, to adjust a salary for inflation inside a spreadsheet or a raise proposal — it takes three steps. First, look up the CPI annual average for both years (the full 1913–present series is embedded in this page). Second, divide the later year’s CPI by the earlier year’s to get the inflation factor. Third, multiply the old salary by that factor. Example: adjusting $50,000 from 2015 to 2025 uses 321.9 ÷ 237.0 ≈ 1.358, so the inflation-adjusted salary is about $67,900. Comparing salaries by year in either direction works the same way — to deflate a modern salary back to an older year’s dollars, divide instead of multiply.
Wage inflation vs price inflation
Two different things get called "inflation" in pay conversations. Price inflation — what CPI measures and what this calculator uses — is the rise in the cost of goods and services. Wage inflation is the economy-wide pace of pay increases, the number employers watch in salary surveys. Your real purchasing power depends on the race between them, applied to your own paycheck: when your personal raises outrun price inflation, the verdict line above turns positive. National wage inflation can be a useful benchmark in negotiations, but it is CPI that decides what your salary actually buys.
Nominal raises lie a little
Between 2021 and 2023, plenty of workers got the biggest nominal raises of their careers and still lost ground: US prices rose 8.0% in 2022 alone, so a "generous" 5% raise that year was a real pay cut of nearly 3%. The reverse happens too — through the 2010s, inflation averaged under 2%, so even modest 3% annual raises compounded into genuine purchasing-power gains. The lesson of the table above is that the drift never stops: a salary left untouched since 2015 has quietly lost about a quarter of its buying power. If your pay review only discusses the nominal percentage, this page gives you the missing half of the conversation.
About the data
The tool embeds annual-average values of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, all items, 1982–84 = 100), the headline series published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for every year from 1913 to the present. Annual averages — rather than a single month — smooth out seasonal noise, which suits salary comparisons since pay applies across a whole year. One footnote for accuracy: the 2025 average is computed from eleven months, because the BLS could not collect October 2025 data during the lapse in federal appropriations. The series is refreshed here once a year when the BLS finalizes the annual average.
Frequently asked questions
My raise matched inflation exactly. Did I break even?
In purchasing-power terms, yes — your salary buys the same basket as before. Whether that's acceptable is another question: workers typically expect real growth over a career from experience and progression, so years of merely matching inflation can still represent a lost opportunity.
Why use annual averages instead of a specific month?
A salary is earned across a year, so comparing annual price averages is the natural fit. Month-to-month CPI comparisons are better suited to one-off prices, and they add seasonal noise that has nothing to do with your pay.
Is CPI the right measure of "my" inflation?
It's the standard one, but it's an average urban basket. If your spending skews toward categories that rose faster — rent in a hot market, childcare, healthcare — your personal inflation ran hotter than the headline number, and the real-change figure here is, if anything, flattering.
Can I compare two past years, like 1999 vs 2009?
Yes — pick any two years from 1913 onward in either order. The tool always restates the earlier salary in the later year's dollars.
How do I adjust a salary for inflation by hand?
Multiply by the CPI ratio: salary × CPI(target year) ÷ CPI(original year). For 2015 → 2025 the factor is about 1.358, so $50,000 becomes roughly $67,900. Dividing instead converts a modern salary back into older dollars.
Is this a wage inflation calculator?
It adjusts your individual wage or salary for price inflation, which is what determines purchasing power. Economy-wide wage inflation (average pay growth) is a different series — useful for benchmarking raises, but not what decides what your paycheck buys.
Related tool: convert your pay between hourly, monthly, and annual figures with the hourly to salary calculator.