Enter a past salary, the year, and today's pay — see your real change in buying power, in today's dollars.
The real-pay formula
break-even salary = old salary × (1 + inflation)^years
real change % = today's salary ÷ break-even − 1
Everything gets converted into today's dollars so the comparison is apples to apples. Nominal raises are the ones on paper; real changes are the ones at the grocery store — and over multi-year stretches the two diverge more than most people track.
A worked example
$60,000 five years ago at 3.5% average inflation needs $71,250 today to break even. Earning $72,000 now means the 20% of nominal raises collected over five years amount to a real gain of about 1% — not falling behind, but a half-decade of "solid raises" that basically treaded water. Run the same math at 8% inflation years and the picture is starker, which is exactly why 2021–2023 job switchers pulled so far ahead of stayers.
The five-year check-in habit
Do this math once a year — it takes a minute and it converts vague salary feelings into one number. Pair it with the real raise calculator for this year's increment and the negotiation calculator when the number says it's time to act.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my salary kept up with inflation?
Grow your old salary by cumulative inflation between then and now; if today's salary is higher than that number, you gained real ground. $60,000 in 2020 needs roughly $75,000 in 2026 just to buy the same life.
Where do I find inflation rates for past years?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI calculator (bls.gov) gives exact month-to-month conversion. For this tool, the average annual rate over your period is close enough — recent years have ranged from ~2% to over 8%.
My raises beat inflation every year, so why do I feel behind?
Two usual suspects: your personal inflation differs from CPI (housing and childcare rose faster than the average basket for many people), or your responsibilities grew faster than your pay — you got real raises for the same job while quietly doing a bigger one.
What do I do if I've fallen behind?
The gap number itself is the negotiation opener — 'my real pay is X% below where it was in 2021' is concrete and checkable. Bring it with market data (see the raise negotiation calculator), or accept what it usually signals: switching jobs reprices people 10–20% at once.