A 3% pay rise feels good. In a year of 5% inflation, it's effectively a 2% cut. As obvious as that sounds, it's reliably missed, in HR conversations, in collective bargaining, in how people perceive their own progress. This calculator places three lines side by side so you can see where you actually stand.
Three comparisons that matter
Your salary now, against your salary then. Sounds trivial. Rarely written down honestly, especially when the rise came via a job change and nobody mentions the old number any more.
Inflation since your last rise. We use Destatis's Consumer Price Index and compute cumulative inflation between the date you give us and today. The output: what your salary would need to be now, to hold the same purchasing power.
National wage growth. Destatis's Nominal Wage Index shows how German wages overall have moved. If you've risen faster than the average, you've relatively gained. If you've risen slower, you've relatively lost, even if you're absolutely earning more.
What you get
An honest diagnosis: have you held purchasing power, gained, or lost? Plus a ready-formatted paragraph you can paste into your next salary conversation or an email to your manager. With correct figures, sourced, without exaggeration. The case is sober, because sober cases are the ones that work.
What we don't model
Variable comp, bonuses, equity: too individual. Sector-specific wage growth: the calculator uses the national average. Your own sector may have moved faster or slower.