Hello, I'm looking for some advice for calculating salary costs for a funding proposal.

We're applying for five year funding, so we want to include projected inflationary increases for salaries, but we are also aware that our salaries are currently below the market rate, so we're hoping to bring our team up to where their salaries should be, as well as balancing inflationary increases/minimum wage, and considering that we have other team members funded from different sources. We want to make sure that our pay policy is the same for all staff.

I had looked at doing the following, so please could anyone advise if this is the correct approach, or if we should be doing something else?

I have been researching what the salaries should be now (based on things like CharityJob salary checker and salaries for other similar orgs to us), then adding 3-4% each year for inflation etc., up to five years (with a higher increase for the lower paid role). So for example, Role A is currently on £30,000, but the role should be closer to £36,000 right now. Based on adding 3.5% each year, means that by year 5, they should be on £42,750, so I plan to stagger the increases each year between April 2027 to April 2032.

Of course, for the funding application itself I will also be adding 15% for on-costs, but I'd like to make sure that I've allowed for both inflationary increases, and to make the roles competitive. I also need to make sure I can justify the costs to the board, and the funder.

Thanks so much in advance!