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.
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.
Related tool: convert your pay between hourly, monthly, and annual figures with the hourly to salary calculator.