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Most freelancers go years without a raise — and forget that standing still costs money. Inflation quietly cuts the value of every hour you bill. This shows your new rate, the dollar and percent increase, and the one number that matters most: whether the raise actually beats inflation or just treads water.
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A raise is two separate questions wearing one coat. The first is arithmetic — what is my new rate, in dollars and as a percentage? The second is the one almost everyone skips: is this actually a raise, or am I just catching up to inflation? A 5% bump after three years of flat rates and 4% inflation isn't a 5% raise — in real, take-home-purchasing-power terms, it's a pay cut. This calculator answers both questions at once.
You can specify the raise two ways. Pick By a % when you think in increments ("I'll go up 10% this year"). Pick To a target rate when you have a number in mind ("I want to be at $150") and want to see how big a jump that really is. Either way, the math underneath is the same:
Inflation compounds, so the longer you've held a rate, the more it has quietly eroded. The rate you'd need just to stand still is your current rate grown by inflation for every year since your last increase:
If your new rate clears that baseline, the part above it is your real raise — actual gained purchasing power. If your new rate falls short of the baseline, you're going backward even though the number on your invoice went up. That's why the result card builds your new rate as a ladder: current rate, plus the inflation catch-up, equals the baseline, plus (or minus) the real raise, equals your new rate. The headline number and the ladder always reconcile to the penny.
A few dollars an hour feels small until you multiply it by a year of billable work. That's the point of the billable-hours input: a $10/hour raise at 1,150 billable hours is $11,500 a year — real money that's easy to leave on the table by never asking. Set the hours slider to your own realistic billable year (not hours worked — hours actually billed), and the annual difference shows the true stakes of the conversation you might be avoiding.
There's no single right number, but two anchors help. First, never raise by less than inflation since your last increase, or you're taking a real pay cut — this calculator shows that baseline. Second, freelancers who raise on a regular cadence typically move 5–15% at a time; large one-time jumps are usually a sign the rate drifted too low for too long. If the increase you need to beat inflation already feels big, that's information: you've been under-raising, not over-asking.
Use a long-run average unless you have a reason not to. US consumer price inflation (CPI) has averaged roughly 3–4% per year over the long term, though 2021–2023 ran considerably hotter. The default here is 3.5%. If you want to be conservative about protecting your purchasing power, round up rather than down — and remember the calculator compounds it across every year since your last raise.
It compares your new rate to the inflation-adjusted baseline — what your old rate would have to grow to just to hold the same buying power. If your new rate is higher than that baseline, the difference is a genuine raise in real terms. If it's lower, your rate went up on paper but down in what it can actually buy, which the result flags as a real-terms cut.
No. Every calculation runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to a server or stored. The link in your address bar updates as you change inputs so you can bookmark or share a scenario, but that link only contains the numbers you chose.
Keep going
Pressure-test the new rate against the take-home you actually need.
See what your raised rate works out to as a yearly salary.
Hold new gigs to your higher rate before you commit.