How your salary's purchasing power has changed, 2026
Your salary
Fixed case: employee, Vienna, no children, with 13th/14th.
per month · €40,610 a year, including the 13th and 14th
per month · €31,199 a year, including the 13th and 14th
Against 2021
+29,9 % per month · +€13,622 a year
+30,3 % per month · +€9,411 (+30,2 %) a year
+1,2 % per month · +€458 (+1,1 %) a year
Your gross rose 5,4 % a year, prices 5,2 %
price index still provisional
You are €62 above that
Nominal against real
Net per yearBoth lines show the same net, measured in two different currencies. Net is what was actually in the account that year, in the euros of the time. Purchasing power restates that very same figure in 2026 euros, saying what it would be worth today. In 2026 the two meet, because today's money needs no conversion. In the tooltip each line reads as a percentage of its own 2021 value: both start at 100 % there, and how far apart they have drifted by 2026 is the whole point of the page. The horizontal rule marks the 2021 purchasing-power level.
Year by year
Employee, Vienna, no children, 13th and 14th salary agreed, no commuter allowance and no benefit in kind. Net figures are annual. Identical net figures in consecutive years are not a bug, and at high salaries the net can even fall from one year to the next: the section below says why. The real column restates EVERY year in 2026 euros: the rows are only comparable to each other in one common currency, and today's is the only one anyone has a feel for. So a large figure against a long-ago year does not mean more money was in the account back then. It means that year's net would be worth that much today. The purchasing-power column measures each row against the comparison year, which is therefore always 100 %. The VPI beside it is the national consumer price index on base 2020 = 100, the price level itself: it rises while purchasing power falls. From 2026 the price index is not yet final and is marked in the table: a year still running has monthly figures only (provisional), a future one has none (forecast). The tax rules are settled either way.
Why this happens
Your gross grows along with this calculation, from €3,257 to €4,230 a month, and appears as a line of its own among the rules. Here is what moved the net between 2021 and 2026, broken down for this exact salary: each line is what that one change gave or cost, computed with the same engine as above. The lines add up to the nominal change, and only then do prices decide how much purchasing power is left of it.
What your gross actually gained over the period. The figure here is smaller than the rise itself, because social insurance and tax take their share of every extra euro.
The brackets were cut and, since 2023, are indexed to inflation each year. Before that every raise pushed part of the salary into a higher bracket, which is what bracket creep means.
The commuter credit and its supplement, also indexed since 2023. They are flat amounts, so they matter most in proportion at low incomes.
The favourable rate for the 13th and 14th salary, its allowance and its threshold. The 620 € allowance has not moved since 2002; the threshold has been raised annually since 2024, but it only bites on small special payments, so a normal 13th and 14th leaves this at zero. Your special payments growing along with a pay rise does not count here but on the line about how your pay moved: this line is the rules alone.
What comes off the gross before tax. At low incomes the unemployment-insurance reduction bands show up here as relief; in Vienna that is offset from 2026 by the housing levy rising to 0,75 %.
The ceiling up to which contributions are due rises every year with the revaluation figure. Anyone earning above it insures more income each year, which eats back the bracket cuts. Below the ceiling it changes nothing at all.
Frequently asked questions
Keep calculating
This page follows a single pay history and a deliberately simple case, to keep the effect of the rules and of prices visible. For your actual net taking every option into account, from child tax credits to the commuter allowance and special payments: Gross-net calculator
Sources: consumer price index (Statistik Austria, base 2020 = 100) for prices, Jährliche Personeneinkommen (Statistik Austria) for the median, §§ 33 and 67 EStG 1988 (RIS) and each year's ASVG contribution law for the net, computed with the same engine as the gross-to-net calculator. For years with no published index: Tariflohnindex (Statistik Austria) and the WIFO forecast. The tax rules are settled for every year shown; the price index is not, and the table marks which years are provisional or forecast.