# What is better a $1000 annual raise or a $300 raise every six months? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 17, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482 "2003-12-17T06:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeke\_N.Destroi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4af34b/32.png) [@Zeke\_N.Destroi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeke_N.Destroi)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482/1 "2003-12-17T06:23:25Z")
In your answer to this question you said, “A semiannual raise of $300 is an annual increase of $600, and if you have two such increases per year your annualized salary hike is $1,200.” Seems to me that if you have a SEMI-annual increase of $300 that would mean your ANNUAL pay hike would be $600 ($300 X 2). I know I’ll likely be pilloried for a fool for asking this but; how do you figure on getting 4 raises in a year via two semi-annual bumps of $300 each? A curious Canadian ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482/2 "2003-12-17T11:52:59Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **ToxicRespite**. Link to the article: [What’s better, a $1,000 raise each year, or a $300 raise every six months?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_198.html) ---
**Author:** ![Some\_User\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Some\_User\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_User_Name)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482/3 "2003-12-17T18:03:57Z")
If I may: (Disclaimer: I’m not a HR Guru. I’m a PeopleSoft Guru, and I support a HR group.) Some companies quote pay at various time intervals; I’ve seen hourly, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, and yearly. Daily, bimonthly, and semi-annually are also entirely possible. The trick to the question as it was answered is that, for the question to work out how it was answered, you must presume that the employee is being paid semi-annually **and that the salary increase is expressed in dollars per pay period**. Say Bob makes $20800 per year, or $10 per hour. He could be expressed as making $10400 semi-anually. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_User\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Some\_User\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_User_Name)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482/4 "2003-12-17T18:16:14Z")
ACK! Sorry- premature posting. Anyway, if he took the $300/six month increase (each six months), his pay for each period would be: 10,400 - 1st 6 months 10,700 - 2nd 6 months 11,000 - 3rd 6 months 11,300 -4th 6 months If he took the $1,000 / year pay raise, his pay for each period would be: 20800 - 1st year 21800 - 2nd year If you add up the 6 month rates for each year, then you get: 21,100 - 1st year 22,300 - 2nd year Meaning, on your first year, you’d make $300 more, and on the second year $500 more if you took the six month raises. Of course, most of the time, employeers quote raises either per hour or per year. (To get a raise to behave that year, we’d probably describe it as a $600 pay raise, followed by another $600 pay raise in another six months, and so on.) ---
**Author:** ![greytech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@greytech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greytech)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-better-a-1000-annual-raise-or-a-300-raise-every-six-months/219482/5 "2003-12-17T18:24:57Z")
This is based on Marilyn’s **unique** interpretation. Since the raise is applied to the semiannual income, it is equivalent to twice that amount against the yearly income That after the first raise you would be earning $5,300 every six months or a $10,600 annual salary.