Loading rates…
Ctrl Alt Decidectrlaltdecide.com
Pick a year and type what you earned then and what you earn now. This replays real consumer prices from then to the latest month, next to how average pay actually moved.
Loading rates…
Ctrl Alt Decidectrlaltdecide.com
Both start from the same pay. Figures are a year, before tax, unless they say otherwise.
| Kept up with prices | Your pay |
|---|
This salary inflation calculator shows what your pay would need to be today to buy what it bought in an earlier year. Pick the year, any January from 2000 to 2025, and type what you earned then. It grows that pay month by month with the real consumer price index to the latest month, and puts it next to what you earn now, so the gap is how far your pay has pulled ahead of prices or fallen behind them.
Until you type your own, both boxes hold average pay: in the UK, the ONS average weekly earnings across all employees, times 52; in the US, the BLS median weekly earnings of full-time workers, times 52. If you type only your pay then, your pay now assumes it grew like average pay. The line for your pay follows the shape of average pay over the years, stretched to meet the figure you type for now.
All figures are before tax. Prices are the consumer price index (CPI): ONS CPI in the UK and BLS CPI-U in the US.
These use the calculator's starting figures (average pay since January 2015) for the UK and the US, and are refreshed when the data updates.
To keep up with prices since January 2015, UK average pay of £24,750 would need to be £35,792 a year by Aug 2026. At £39,310, average pay is £3,518 a year ahead of prices: 10% more buying power than in 2015.
To keep up with prices since January 2015, US typical full-time pay of $41,860 would need to be $59,581 a year by Aug 2026. At $65,050, typical pay is $5,469 a year ahead of prices: 9% more buying power than in 2015.
Pick the year above and type what you earned then. The line under the result names the figure: your old pay grown by exactly as much as consumer prices have risen since. Earning that now would buy what your old pay did, before tax.
Type your pay then and now. If your pay now is below the figure that kept up with prices, the result shows the gap a year, and the table shows how much less you earned in all since that year. "How it played out" says when your pay fell furthest behind.
Over most stretches since 2000, yes, but not every year. Measured over twelve months, prices rose faster than pay from spring 2021 to autumn 2022 in the US, and from spring 2022 to spring 2023 in the UK. Leave both boxes empty and move between start years to see it; "How it played out" names the months average pay spent behind prices.
CPI is the official inflation measure in both countries and the one the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve target. In the UK, RPI usually runs higher, so pay that kept up with CPI can still trail RPI.
No, every figure is before tax. Take-home pay can trail prices by more than the result shows: in the UK, income tax thresholds have been frozen since 2021, so more of each pay rise is taxed.