Salary Ratio Calculator
Two salaries are hard to compare at a glance. Is $40,000 against $50,000 a small gap or a big one? A ratio answers it four ways at once: 0.80: 1, 80.0%, a $10,000.00 difference, and a simplified 4: 5. This salary ratio calculator does that comparison for any two pay figures, whether you are weighing two job offers, checking your pay against a range midpoint, or running a first-pass pay-equity screen.
Please enter a valid salary above zero.
Please enter a valid salary above zero.
Salary A is compared against Salary B. The ratio reads “A to B”: 0.80: 1 means A earns 80% of B. Swap the two inputs and the ratio flips to its reciprocal.
Quick Answer
$40,000 against $50,000 is a salary ratio of 0.80: 1. Salary A is 80.0% of Salary B, the gap is $10,000.00 with Salary B higher, and the pair simplifies to 4: 5. Put any two salaries in the calculator above and you get the same four readings, plus a badge naming the higher earner.
Key takeaways
- Salary ratio = Salary A ÷ Salary B. The percentage is the same division × 100, and the gap is the plain subtraction.
- Order matters: the tool always measures A against B, so swapping the inputs flips the ratio to its reciprocal (0.80: 1 becomes 1.25: 1).
- When Salary B is a pay-range midpoint or market median, the percentage reading is a compa-ratio, the standard HR benchmarking metric.
- A ratio surfaces a pay gap; it does not explain one. Role, experience, performance and location still have to be checked.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the salary ratio calculator
- The salary ratio formula
- Worked example: $40,000 against $50,000
- Reading the result: parity, compa-ratio bands and the two-salary case
- What competing calculators miss
- Pay gaps: what a ratio can and cannot show
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the salary ratio calculator
Enter the two salaries and click once. Results stay hidden until you calculate.
- Enter Salary A: the pay figure you are measuring, such as your current salary or the first of two job offers. The worked example, $40,000, is pre-filled.
- Enter Salary B: the reference figure, such as the other offer, a colleague’s salary, or a range midpoint. The example uses $50,000.
- Click Calculate Ratio: you get the ratio to 1, the percentage, the dollar gap with the higher earner named, the simplified ratio and a higher-earner badge.
- Copy or share the result with the buttons inside the results box. Reset restores the $40,000 and $50,000 example.
Both fields are validated separately: a blank, non-numeric, zero or negative entry in either field shows “Please enter a valid salary above zero.” under that field and no result is produced. Cents are accepted, so $40,000.50 against $50,000.25 runs fine, though the simplified ratio then works on cents and can look odd (53334: 66667 for that pair). Whole-dollar salaries give the cleanest simplified ratios.
The salary ratio formula
One division produces all four readings. Salary A is the measured salary and Salary B is the reference salary, in the same currency and the same pay period.
Percentage = (Salary A ÷ Salary B) × 100
Dollar gap = |Salary A − Salary B|
Simplified ratio = both salaries ÷ their greatest common divisor
The simplified step is the one people trip on by hand. $40,000 and $50,000 share a greatest common divisor of $10,000, so dividing both by $10,000 gives 4: 5. The tool finds that divisor on the cent values, which is why whole-dollar inputs simplify neatly and cent-level inputs sometimes do not. If the second salary is a benchmark rather than a person’s pay, the same math has an HR name: according to ADP’s compa-ratio guide, a compa-ratio divides an employee’s salary by the midpoint or market reference for the role, and most fall between 80% and 120%.
Worked example: $40,000 against $50,000
The two pre-filled salaries produce the headline comparison below. Every figure below is a real run of the calculator above.
Five more real runs, including the flipped example and a pair of official pay statistics:
| Comparison | Ratio | Percent | Gap | Simplified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 vs $50,000 (worked example) | 0.80: 1 | 80.0% | $10,000.00, B higher | 4: 5 |
| $75,000 vs $50,000 (higher offer) | 1.50: 1 | 150.0% | $25,000.00, A higher | 3: 2 |
| $50,000 vs $50,000 (equal pay) | 1.00: 1 | 100.0% | No gap | 1: 1 |
| $1,127 vs $1,352 (BLS median weekly pay, women vs men, Q3 2026) | 0.83: 1 | 83.4% | $225.00, B higher | 1127: 1352 |
| $33,333 vs $77,777 (uneven pair) | 0.43: 1 | 42.9% | $44,444.00, B higher | 3: 7 |
The BLS row deserves a second look. The Bureau of Labor Statistics usual weekly earnings release reports full-time median weekly pay of $1,127 for women and $1,352 for men in the third quarter of 2026, and it states that same relationship as 83.4%. That is a salary ratio doing national-statistics work: one division, quoted as a percentage, with the simplified form (1127: 1352) useless because the two medians share no common divisor worth the name.
Reading the result: parity, compa-ratio bands and the two-salary case
A ratio near 1: 1 means near parity; the further it sits from 1, the bigger the distance. What counts as a worrying distance depends on which of the two uses you are in.
For the benchmark use, where Salary B is a range midpoint, HR practice reads the percentage as a compa-ratio. The bands below follow the range ADP describes, with 100% at the benchmark:
| Percentage of midpoint | Reading | Typical story |
|---|---|---|
| Below 80% | Well below benchmark | Underpaid against the range, or a data error. Worth an individual review either way. |
| 80% to 100% | Below midpoint | Common for newer hires and people still growing into the role; the range leaves room to move up. |
| 100% | At midpoint | Paid exactly at the benchmark the range was built around. |
| 100% to 120% | Above midpoint | Common for experienced, high-performing or hard-to-replace staff. |
| Above 120% | Well above benchmark | Paid beyond the usual band. Sometimes justified by scarce skills; sometimes a sign the range itself is stale. |
For the two-person use, neither salary is a benchmark, so skip the bands and read the three plain facts: who earns more, by how many dollars, and by what multiple. A 0.80: 1 between two people in the same role is a $10,000 question at the $40,000 to $50,000 level, and a $25,000 question at $100,000 to $125,000, even though the ratio is identical. Percentages hide scale; the gap line restores it. Two neighbouring metrics answer different questions again: a salary range penetration calculator places one salary inside its range minimum and maximum, and a salary compression calculator checks whether new hires have caught up with experienced staff. This page is the head-to-head comparison underneath both.
What competing calculators miss
Salary comparison tools cluster into a few camps, and each stops one step short:
- Compa-ratio calculators (SalaryCube, Area Calculators): built for HR benchmarking against a midpoint, and SalaryCube adds range penetration and quartile readouts. Strong for that one job, but the framing assumes you have a pay range. Two job offers, or your pay against a colleague’s, fit awkwardly.
- Generic ratio simplifiers (ratio calculators and homework sites): they reduce 40000: 50000 to 4: 5 and stop. No percentage, no dollar gap, no naming of who earns more, and nothing about pay at all.
- Salary comparison and cost-of-living tools: compare offers across cities with tax and rent adjustments. Useful, but they bury the simple head-to-head ratio under assumptions you may not share.
- Pay-gap explainers (HR blogs and glossaries): they define compa-ratio well, ADP and Oyster HR among them, then leave you to do the division in a spreadsheet.
- The gap this page fills: one tool that treats any two salaries equally, a person or a benchmark in either field, and returns all four readings at once with copy and share, plus the compa-ratio reading for the benchmark case.
Pay gaps: what a ratio can and cannot show
A ratio is a screening tool, not a verdict. Run it across a team and the outliers tell you where to dig; they do not tell you what you will find.
The legal backdrop is real. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s pay discrimination guidance explains that the Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for men and women doing the same work at the same workplace, and that other federal laws bar pay differences based on race, age, disability and other protected traits. Legitimate reasons for a gap do exist: seniority, merit systems, production-based pay, experience and responsibility. A defensible review therefore pairs every ratio with the job content behind it, because the EEOC judges jobs by what people actually do, not by titles.
Two practical habits help. Compare like with like first, same role, same location, same pay period, before comparing across departments. And when a gap tracks a pattern rather than a person, look at the structure behind it: compressed ranges are a common culprit when long-serving staff sit barely above new hires. If your own figure is the low one in the comparison, the next step is usually a raise case, and the salary raise calculator turns a target ratio into the percentage increase you would need to reach it. A pay cut comparison runs the same way in reverse with the salary cut calculator.
Frequently asked questions
A salary ratio compares two salaries as one number relative to the other. You divide the first salary (Salary A) by the second (Salary B): a ratio of 0.80: 1 means Salary A is 80% of Salary B. This calculator also shows the percentage form, the dollar gap with the higher earner named, and the simplified whole-number ratio.
Divide Salary A by Salary B. For $40,000 against $50,000, that is 40,000 divided by 50,000 = 0.80, written 0.80: 1. Multiply by 100 for the percentage form (80.0%), subtract for the dollar gap ($10,000), and divide both salaries by their greatest common divisor ($10,000) for the simplified ratio, 4: 5.
It means the two salaries are identical. The ratio is 1.00: 1, the percentage is 100.0%, the gap reads “No gap: both salaries are equal.” and the simplified ratio is 1: 1.
A compa-ratio is the special case of this calculation where Salary B is a benchmark: the midpoint of a pay range or the market median for the role. When you enter an employee’s salary as Salary A and the range midpoint as Salary B, the percentage this tool shows is that employee’s compa-ratio. ADP notes compa-ratios generally fall between 80% and 120%, with 100% at the benchmark. A plain salary ratio needs no benchmark: any two salaries can be compared.
They say the same thing in two dialects. Ratios read naturally for multiples, such as “1.50: 1” for someone earning half as much again. Percentages read naturally for gaps, such as “80% of the other salary.” This tool prints both plus the dollar gap, so you never have to convert by hand.
It can surface one, but it cannot prove unfairness on its own. Comparing pay for people doing substantially equal work is exactly how pay-equity reviews start, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission treats pay differences for equal work as a legal issue, not just an HR one. A ratio flags where to look; experience, responsibility, performance and location explain, or fail to explain, what you find.
It is the same comparison reduced to the smallest whole numbers, found by dividing both salaries by their greatest common divisor: $40,000 and $50,000 become 4: 5. It stops helping when the salaries share no large divisor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics median weekly pay figures for full-time workers in the third quarter of 2026, $1,127 for women and $1,352 for men, simplify only to 1127: 1352, which is harder to say than the 83.4% the percentage form gives.
Yes. The tool always divides Salary A by Salary B, so swapping the inputs flips the answer to its reciprocal. $40,000 against $50,000 is 0.80: 1 and 80.0%; $50,000 against $40,000 is 1.25: 1 and 125.0%, with the simplified ratio 5: 4. Decide which salary is the reference point before you quote the result.
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References
- ADP. What is a Compa-Ratio? How to Calculate (compa-ratio formula, the 80% to 120% typical range, 100% as market value). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- Society for Human Resource Management. Designing Pay Structures (pay range and midpoint design behind compa-ratio benchmarking). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. How much could I be earning? Using Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data during salary negotiations (using OEWS median wages as salary benchmarks). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, Third Quarter 2026 (median weekly earnings $1,232 overall; women $1,127, or 83.4% of the $1,352 median for men). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Profiles Help File (definitions of median and percentile wages used as benchmarks). Accessed October 24, 2026.
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pay Discrimination (Equal Pay Act and the other federal laws covering salary differences). Accessed October 24, 2026.