Is your raise actually a raise?

The percentage on the letter is nominal. What matters is whether your money buys more than it did last year.

Your numbers

Current salary

New salary

Inflation

Canadian CPI has recently run near 2–3%.

That's a real raise

Ahead of inflation

The number on the letter is nominal. What matters is whether your money buys more than it did last year.

Nominal raise

$3,000

3.16% on paper

Real change

$145.63

0.15% in purchasing power

Break-even salary

$97,850

What you'd need just to stand still

Versus break-even

$150

Above break-even

If every year looked like this one, in 10 years you'd earn $129,669.23 — worth $96,486.09 in today's dollars.

A small annual shortfall compounds. No single year looks wrong, which is how it goes unnoticed.