You may get a raise this year. Chances are, if you do, it won’t get you very far.
Employers budgeted an average 3.2% for merit increases in 2026, according to Mercer’s U.S. Compensation Planning Survey. Meanwhile, consumer prices were up 3.4% over the 12 months ending in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So even if your paycheck looks higher, you may have lost some purchasing power. Congratulations, you got a raise. You still didn't get ahead.
It's easy to miss because a bigger number on your pay stub feels like progress. But treading water, even in a job you're grateful to have, isn't much of a strategy for building your earning power.
This is exactly why waiting on the next small raise isn't the way to grow your lifetime earnings. If the default path barely keeps pace with inflation, you can't significantly change your earning power by playing it safe inside your current role. You have to change what you're eligible for altogether.
This is where an MBA changes the equation, not by giving you a better raise, but by moving you into a different pay structure entirely. Forté’s most recent MBA alumni research shows that women who get an MBA see an average 52% salary increase in their very first job after graduating.* Not over a decade. Immediately. And the earning potential can continue to grow. According to the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2026, graduates of the world's top 100 MBA programs saw their salaries increase an average of 118% within three years of graduation.**
The 3.2% isn’t really the problem. It’s the ceiling. As long as you’re waiting on next year’s budget to determine how much more you can earn, you’re capped at whatever one employer allocates to raises in a given year. That number doesn’t move just because your performance warrants more. It moves based on a company’s revenue, headcount, plans and market conditions that have nothing to do with you.
Treading water, even in a job you're grateful to have, isn't much of a strategy for building your earning power.”
An MBA doesn’t fix inflation. It changes which number you’re subject to. Instead of asking whether this year’s raise will keep pace, you’re qualifying for roles and compensation bands that were never part of the conversation before.
Not sure if an MBA makes sense for you? Take our Should You Get an MBA? quiz to think through what you want next and whether an MBA could help you get there.
