Worked examples
Three raises, three different stories
Fictional pay situations using published CPI observations. All examples use 52 weeks per year. Dollar amounts are gross and annualized.
A 3% raise with the same hours
September 2025: $60,000 at 40 hours/week. September 2026: $61,800 at 40 hours/week.
- Consumer price change
- +3.74%
- Real annual income
- −0.71%
- Real pay per hour
- −0.71%
- Annual income to preserve purchasing power
- $62,242.61
The nominal raise is smaller than the price increase. With the same hours, both purchasing-power measures fall by the same percentage.
Load this comparisonA higher hourly rate, fewer paid hours
September 2025: $30/hour for 40 hours/week. September 2026: $31/hour for 35 hours/week.
- Annualized gross income
- $62,400 → $56,420
- Nominal hourly rate
- +3.33%
- Real annual income
- −12.84%
- Real pay per hour
- −0.39%
The hourly raise is almost enough to keep pace with inflation, but the reduction in paid hours has a much larger effect on annual income. This does not put a dollar value on the additional free time.
Load this comparisonA bigger salary and a longer workweek
September 2024: $60,000 at 40 hours/week. September 2026: $66,000 at 45 hours/week.
- Nominal annual salary
- +10.00%
- Consumer price change
- +6.86%
- Real annual income
- +2.94%
- Real pay per hour
- −8.50%
- Salary to preserve purchasing power per hour at 45 h/week
- $72,132.50
The salary buys more over a full year, but the workweek grew faster than the salary. Each hour therefore buys less. Both results are needed to understand this change.
Load this comparisonData behind these examples
BLS CPI-U CUUR0000SA0: September 2024 = 315.301; September 2025 = 324.800; September 2026 = 336.940. Retrieved November 1, 2026. Displayed percentages and amounts are rounded; formulas use the unrounded values.