Use the native Element.getBoundingClientRect
rather than the style of the element. It was introduced in IE4 and is supported by all browsers:
$("#container")[0].getBoundingClientRect().width
Note: For IE8 and below, see the “Browser Compatibility” notes in the MDN docs.
$("#log").html(
$("#container")[0].getBoundingClientRect().width
);
#container {
background: blue;
width: 543.5px;
height: 20px;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
<p id="log"></p>