Pay Rise Lifetime Value Calculator

This calculator reveals what a single pay rise is worth compounded over the rest of your career. Because future percentage raises build on the higher base, a rise today lifts every pay packet you receive from now until you stop working. You enter the rise, your years left in work and an assumed annual raise, and the tool shows the total extra you would earn, making a powerful case for negotiating well at every step.

$
%
$0
total extra earned over your remaining career
If it never grew$0
The compounding bonus$0

This shows the gross lifetime value to illustrate the compounding effect; tax would reduce the take-home. It assumes the higher base grows with your assumed annual raise each year. Estimate only, not financial advice.

How it works

The calculator starts with your pay rise as a higher base, then grows it by your assumed annual raise each year for the years left in your career, and adds up the extra you earn each year. Because each future raise is a percentage of the now-higher salary, the rise keeps paying off well beyond its first year. The difference between this total and the simple rise times years is the compounding bonus.

Worked example

A $5,000 rise with 25 years left, growing 2.5% a year, is worth around $170,000 over the remaining career, compared with $125,000 if it never grew. The extra roughly $45,000 is the compounding bonus from lifting your base today.

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