mysalaryworth
I earna month, unchanged sinceand I live in
Example figures. Change them to yours.
Deadline passed

Your salary has lost 14.7% since March 2022. You should have asked in March 2025, 18 months ago.

Ask for a raise of+17.2%that’s $6,211 a month instead of $5,300
to stay whole a year from now: +21.6%
+3.7extra working days a month you’d need to live as you did in March 2022
$59,075what you’d have earned on top if your pay had been indexed to inflation every month since January 2019≈ 11 months of your pay · the monthly gaps added up
32%burdenof your pay goes on renthealthy: up to 30%
Your salary’s cheeseburger index

How much food one paycheck buys

MonthSeptember2026
Dinner for two · a month98130 at the start
Eaten by inflation−3224% of the starting amount
= 5 dinners for twoeaten by inflation (not you)
Sept 2026Jan 2019Sept 2026

Drag the slider to step through the months.

Decision points

When you should have asked for a raise

You crossed −10% in January 2022, then in March 2025. You’re at 85% of the level after your last raise.

How the need growsthe raise you’d need, month by month
−5%: prepare the talk−10%: deadline: ask now−20%: you’ve effectively been demotedforecast at the last 12 months’ pacelevel after the raise
Housing

How much of your pay goes on rent

Rent took 24% of your pay in January 2019; now it takes 32%. Housing already takes over a third of your income.

your rent ÷ salaryup to 30%: fine30–50%: housing becomes a burdenover 50%: half your pay is left to live on
Personal inflation

Your inflation isn’t the one on the news

Since January 2019, your personal inflation is +36%. The official figure on the news is +34%. The biggest rise: cafés & restaurants (+40%).

We assumed groceries take 22% of your pay and cafés 6%, rent 24% (from your data). Unless you live on cheeseburgers alone, tune your basket.

The IMF hasn’t published some categories for United States for this period yet; gaps are filled from the overall price index. The overall index is missing for some months (e.g. US, October 2025) and is interpolated.

Talking to your manager

What to say

Since March 2022, prices have risen +17.2% (IMF consumer price index through September 2026). My salary hasn’t changed in that time, so its real value has fallen 14.7%. To get back to the March 2022 level I’d need a +17.2% raise; allowing for the next 12 months of inflation, +21.6%. I’d like to discuss a salary of $6,443.

How we calculate

Purchasing power = salary ÷ the price index of the country you live in (CPI; HICP for the euro area and Poland), converted to your salary currency at the monthly average exchange rate; 100% in the starting month. Thresholds count from the level after your last raise. Past prices of coffee, cheeseburgers and dinners are today’s price scaled by IMF CP11 ‘Restaurants and hotels’; rent without your data by CP04 ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas’. Personal inflation is a basket built from your spending shares. The forecast extends the last 12 months’ pace with your salary unchanged.

Data: IMF CPI (United States, CPI), January 1980 to September 2026. The IMF hasn’t published some categories for United States for this period yet; gaps are filled from the overall price index. The overall index is missing for some months (e.g. US, October 2025) and is interpolated.

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