Is my pay keeping up with inflation?

High inflation means take home pay is being eroded in real terms. An online calculator reveals the pay rise you need to match the rising cost of living - and how much worse off you are without it.

woman looking at paperwork
(Image credit: © Getty Images)

An online calculator reveals how big a pay rise you need to keep up with inflation amid the rising cost of living.

As inflation currently stands at 8.7%, households continue to struggle to keep ahead of record food prices and soaring costs for clothes and other bills.

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Katie Binns

Katie is deputy editor of Times Money Mentor and long-time contributor to the Sunday Times where she started on the Irish desk in 2012 and spent 10 years covering news, culture, travel, personal finance and celebrity interviews. 

Her investigative work on financial abuse has examined the response of banks, the Financial Ombudsman and the child maintenance service to victims, and resulted in a number of debt and mortgage prisoners being set free - and a nomination for Best Finance Story of the Year at the Headline Money awards in 2021 and 2022. 

Katie was also shortlisted for Freelance Journalist of the Year at the Headline Money awards in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and won Personal Finance Journalist of the Year at The British Bank Awards 2022.