Gross and net effect of a raise.
Net gain a year
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New gross salary
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Gross increase
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Gross raise versus what actually reaches you
When a manager offers a raise they quote the gross figure, but that is not the number that changes your life. What lands in your account is the gross increase minus the extra tax it triggers. This calculator exists to close that gap. You enter your current gross salary, choose whether the raise is a percentage or a flat naira amount, and the tool works out your net pay before the raise and after it, then reports the difference. That difference, the net gain, is the honest measure of the offer.
The reason the two numbers diverge is the progressive PAYE scale. A raise does not get spread evenly across all your tax bands. It piles onto the top of your existing income and is taxed at your marginal rate, the highest band your salary already reaches. So the more you already earn, the smaller the share of any raise you keep. This tool also applies the minimum-wage exemption built into the system, so a worker earning at or below the national minimum wage, modelled here as NGN 840,000 a year, owes no employment tax and keeps a raise in full until it lifts them past that floor.
The slice the bands take back
The structure this calculator models comes from Nigeria's 2025 tax reform, in force from 2026. Chargeable income up to NGN 800,000 is taxed at zero, then 15 percent to NGN 3 million, 18 percent to NGN 12 million, 21 percent to NGN 25 million, 23 percent to NGN 50 million, and 25 percent above that. Treat each of these as the rate the calculator applies, not a figure I am certifying as settled law, because the reform is still bedding in and individual figures may move. PAYE is operated by your employer and remitted to the state internal revenue service where you are based, for example the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, so that is the body to confirm the current bands with. The FIRS, renamed the Nigeria Revenue Service under the 2025 Act, governs the federal framework rather than collecting your salary tax.
Your marginal rate is the lever. If your salary already sits inside the 18 percent band, you keep 82 kobo of every extra naira of raise. Inside the 21 percent band you keep 79 kobo, and so on up the scale. The tool captures this automatically by taxing your old and new salaries separately and comparing the take-home figures, rather than applying a single blunt rate to the increase.
A 10 percent raise on NGN 6 million
Suppose you earn NGN 6 million and are offered the default 10 percent raise, lifting you to NGN 6.6 million, a gross increase of NGN 600,000. Your old salary attracts NGN 870,000 of tax, and the new salary attracts NGN 978,000, so tax rises by NGN 108,000. That leaves a net gain of NGN 492,000. In other words you keep 82 percent of the raise, because the whole NGN 600,000 sits inside the 18 percent band that your NGN 6 million salary already occupies.
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When a raise pushes you into a higher band
The interesting case is a raise that straddles two bands. If your current salary is just below NGN 12 million, part of the raise is taxed at 18 percent and the rest at 21 percent, so your retained share falls partway through the increase. The tool handles this cleanly because it never assumes a single rate. A useful judgement when negotiating: a band crossing never costs you more than the gross raise, because only the naira above the threshold meets the higher rate. Nigeria has no cliff where a small raise leaves you worse off, so do not turn one down for fear of the tax. The practical tip is to negotiate on the gross figure but plan your budget on the net gain this tool shows, since that is the cash that actually changes your monthly room.
Does a pay raise ever leave me worse off after tax in Nigeria?
No. Because the system is progressive, only the portion of your raise that crosses into a higher band is taxed at that higher rate. Every extra naira still leaves you with more than you had, so a raise always increases your take-home pay, even when it moves you up a band.
Should I compare a percentage raise with a flat-amount offer?
Yes, and this tool lets you switch between the two modes to see them side by side. On a NGN 6 million salary a 10 percent raise and a flat NGN 600,000 raise are identical, but at other salary levels they diverge, so model both. Whichever you choose, confirm the current bands with your state internal revenue service before relying on the net figure.