Salary Hike Calculator

Turning two salaries into one clear number

When your pay changes — through an appraisal, a promotion or a new job — the most natural question is simply "how big is the jump?" A hike percentage answers that in one figure. This calculator takes your old salary and your new salary, works out the increase, and expresses it as a percentage of what you earned before. It also shows the increase in rupees and spreads it across the year into a monthly number, because a percentage and a monthly figure tell you two different, equally useful things.

The formula is short: subtract the old salary from the new, divide by the old, and multiply by a hundred. Going from six lakh to seven-twenty is a one-lakh-twenty-thousand increase on a six-lakh base — a 20% hike.

Percentages versus absolute rupees

A percentage is always relative to your starting point, and that is easy to forget. A 30% hike sounds better than a 12% one, but 30% of a modest salary can add fewer rupees than 12% of a large one. This is why the calculator deliberately shows both the percentage and the absolute increase. When you compare offers or evaluate an appraisal, look at the two together — the percentage tells you how generous the raise is relative to your base, and the rupee figure tells you what actually lands in your account.

Hikes when you switch jobs

In India, the word hike is everywhere at appraisal time, and expectations differ sharply between internal raises and job changes. An annual increment inside a company commonly falls in the 8% to 12% band. Moving to a new employer, by contrast, often unlocks a much larger step — frequently 20% to 40%, and higher still for scarce skills. That gap is a big reason people change jobs, though a bigger number should always be weighed against the role, the stability and the benefits that come with it.

Reading the result honestly

Two caveats keep the number meaningful. First, compare like with like — old CTC against new CTC, or gross against gross. Feeding in your old CTC and your new in-hand pay will produce a misleadingly small hike. Second, this is a gross and nominal figure. Your take-home rises by a little less after tax, and if inflation ran at 6% during the year, a 6% hike leaves your real spending power unchanged. Check the hike against inflation and against your net pay, and you will know not just how big the jump looks, but how much better off you actually are.