Hourly Wage Calculator UK

Hourly Wage Calculator UK — Quick Answers

Your hourly rate is only half the story. What matters is what it adds up to over a week, a month and a year — and what actually lands in your bank account after tax. This calculator converts any UK hourly wage into daily, weekly, monthly and annual pay, with an estimated take-home figure for the 2026/27 tax year.

£15 an hour = £29,250 a year gross on a 37.5-hour week — about £24,580 take-home after tax.
The formula: annual salary ÷ (hours per week × 52) gives your true hourly rate.
The UK National Living Wage is £12.71/hour (age 21+, from April 2026) — the legal floor nobody can pay below.
Expect roughly 16–20% of gross pay to go to Income Tax and National Insurance at typical wages.
All figures below use verified 2026/27 tax rates — enter your own details above for a personalised estimate.

How to Use the Hourly Wage Calculator

Enter your hourly rate — type what you earn per hour before tax, for example £15.50. Not sure you are being paid enough? Compare it with the current National Minimum Wage rates on GOV.UK.
Enter your hours per week — put in your normal contracted hours. The calculator starts with 37.5, the most common full-time pattern in the UK.
Add your details for take-home pay — choose your tax code (most people are on 1257L), and add pension contributions or a student loan if you have them.
Hit calculate — see your pay broken down by day, week, month and year, plus an estimated take-home figure after Income Tax and National Insurance.

That is all there is to it — under a minute, no sign-up, and everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.

How to Calculate Hourly Wage: The Formula

If you would rather work it out by hand, the formula is simple:

The hourly wage formulaHourly rate = Annual salary ÷ (Hours per week × 52)

Worked example: you earn £30,000 a year and work 37.5 hours a week. 37.5 × 52 = 1,950 hours a year. £30,000 ÷ 1,950 = £15.38 an hour.

The 52 covers the full year. If you take unpaid weeks off, use the number of weeks you are actually paid for instead — that small change is the reason two people on the same salary can have different hourly rates. Someone on £30,000 working 48 paid weeks (1,800 hours) earns £16.67 an hour, a full £1.29 more per hour than someone working all 52 weeks, for the same annual pay.

Our Salary to Hourly Calculator does this conversion for you, including unpaid leave, bonuses and salary sacrifice.

What Do Common Hourly Rates Work Out To?

These are the figures people search for most. All assume a 37.5-hour week, 52 weeks a year, a standard 1257L tax code, and no pension or student loan deductions for the 2026/27 tax year:

Hourly rate	Annual gross	Take-home / year	Take-home / month
£12.71 (National Living Wage)	£24,785	£21,364	£1,780
£15.00	£29,250	£24,580	£2,048
£18.00	£35,100	£28,792	£2,399
£22.00	£42,900	£34,408	£2,867
£25.00	£48,750	£38,620	£3,218
£30.00	£58,500	£44,487	£3,707

So £15 an hour is £29,250 a year before tax — roughly £24,580 in your pocket. Notice how the gap between gross and take-home widens as pay rises: at £30 an hour you keep about 76% of your gross, because earnings above £50,270 are taxed at 40%. Tax figures use the 2026/27 Personal Allowance of £12,570 and the rates published on GOV.UK's Income Tax rates page.

What Is a Good Hourly Wage in the UK?

It depends on where you live and what you compare against, but here are the three benchmarks that matter:

The legal minimum. The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, from April 2026. Younger workers have lower minimum rates (£10.85 for 18–20, £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices). Nobody can legally pay you less than the rate for your age — check the current rates on GOV.UK's minimum wage rates page.

The voluntary Living Wage. The Living Wage Foundation sets a higher voluntary rate based on actual living costs — currently £14.10 an hour outside London (£15.45 in London).

The UK average. Median hourly pay in the UK sits around £15–£16 an hour. If you earn £15 an hour full-time, you are close to the middle of the national picture.

Worth knowing: the National Living Wage and the voluntary Living Wage are different things. One is the law; the other is what campaigners say it actually costs to live on. If a job advert says "Living Wage employer", it usually means the higher voluntary rate.

Negotiating? Knowing the benchmarks gives you leverage. If you are offered £13 an hour, you now know it is only 29p above the legal minimum — and that the voluntary Living Wage is £14.10. That is a concrete, factual basis for asking for more.

Understanding Your Take-Home Pay

Your gross pay is not what you get. In the UK, three main deductions come off before your pay reaches you:

Income Tax — 20% on earnings above the £12,570 Personal Allowance (up to £50,270), then 40% above that. Full bands on GOV.UK.

National Insurance — 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that.

Pension and student loan — most employees pay at least 5% into a workplace pension, and graduates repay 9% of earnings above the student loan threshold.

That is why £15 an hour (£29,250 a year) leaves you about £24,580 — roughly £4,670 a year goes to tax and National Insurance before you ever see it. Add a 5% pension (£1,463) and the take-home drops to about £23,100. If you want the exact tax bands behind the maths, our UK Tax Brackets 2026/27 page lays them out.

How the take-home estimate is worked out

The calculator follows the same order HMRC uses: start with your gross annual pay, subtract pension contributions made before tax, take off your Personal Allowance (£12,570 on a standard code), apply 20% Income Tax to the next slice up to £50,270 (40% above that), then apply National Insurance at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 (2% above). Student loan comes off last, at 9% of earnings above the threshold.

Each step uses the published 2026/27 rates — which is also why the figures match what payroll software produces, as long as the inputs match your payslip. The biggest source of confusion is usually the Personal Allowance: it is not a separate payment, but the slice of your income the government does not tax. Earn £29,250 and only £16,680 of it is actually subject to Income Tax — the first £12,570 is untouched, which is why the effective tax rate feels lower than the 20% headline.

Hourly vs Salaried: Which Job Offer Is Better?

This is one of the most common reasons people use this calculator — comparing two offers where one quotes an hourly rate and the other an annual salary. Do not compare the headline numbers; compare the hourly value of each.

Offer A: £16/hour

37.5 hrs/week × 52 weeks = 1,950 hours

£16 × 1,950 = £31,200/year

No paid overtime; 28 days holiday.

Offer B: £30,000 salary

40 hrs/week × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours

£30,000 ÷ 2,080 = £14.42/hour

Paid overtime at time-and-a-half; 28 days holiday.

Offer A looks smaller but pays £1.58 more per hour. Offer B only wins if you regularly work paid overtime. Always convert to a common unit — hourly rate — before deciding. Watch out for unpaid overtime expectations too: an extra 5 unpaid hours a week on Offer B would drag its real hourly rate down to £12.82, barely above minimum wage.

Part-Time, Zero-Hours Contracts and Overtime

The calculator works the same whatever your pattern — but a few things are worth knowing:

Part-time: enter your actual weekly hours. Someone on £15 an hour working 20 hours a week earns £15,600 a year gross — and because that is only just above the £12,570 Personal Allowance, they keep about £14,940 of it.
Zero-hours contracts: use your average weekly hours over the last few months. Your employer must still pay at least the minimum wage for your age for every hour worked, and you are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year.
Overtime: overtime hours are usually paid at a higher rate (time-and-a-half is typical). There is no legal overtime rate in the UK — it is set by your contract — but your average pay must not fall below minimum wage. Our Overtime Pay Calculator works out what your extra hours are worth.
Bonuses: a £2,000 annual bonus on a £15/hour, 37.5-hour job adds about £1.03 to your effective hourly rate (£2,000 ÷ 1,950 hours) — before tax.

Why Your Payslip Might Show a Different Number

If the calculator's take-home figure does not match your payslip, one of these is almost always the reason:

Your tax code is not 1257L — emergency codes (like 0T or BR) change how much tax is taken. Check what your tax code means on GOV.UK.
Pension is taken differently — some employers deduct pension before tax (salary sacrifice), others after.
You have more than one job — your Personal Allowance only applies once, so the second job is taxed at 20% from the first pound.
Student loan plan — Plan 2 and Plan 5 have different repayment thresholds.
It is an estimate — the calculator uses 2026/27 rates and standard assumptions; payroll software uses your exact year-to-date figures.

A small difference (a few pounds a month) is normal. A large one is worth querying with your payroll department.

Frequently Asked Questions

£15 an hour is £29,250 a year gross on a 37.5-hour week (£15 × 37.5 × 52). After Income Tax and National Insurance, take-home is roughly £24,580 a year (£2,048 a month) in 2026/27 on a standard tax code.

Yes — it is a reasonable wage. It is about £2.30 above the National Living Wage (£12.71) and close to median hourly pay nationally. Whether it feels comfortable depends on where you live: it stretches further outside London and the South East than inside it.

Divide your annual salary by your total working hours for the year: annual salary ÷ (hours per week × 52). For example, £35,000 ÷ (37.5 × 52) = £17.95 an hour. If you take unpaid leave, use your actual paid weeks instead of 52.

£20 an hour is £39,000 a year gross (37.5-hour week). After 20% Income Tax and 8% National Insurance on earnings above £12,570, take-home is roughly £31,600 a year — about £2,633 a month — before pension or student loan deductions.

£25 an hour is £48,750 a year gross on a 37.5-hour week. Take-home is roughly £38,620 a year (£3,218 a month) in 2026/27 — all of it taxed at the 20% basic rate, since £48,750 sits just below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold.

There is no legal definition, but full-time is usually 35–40 hours a week, with 37.5 the most common. What the law does set is a ceiling: most workers cannot be required to average more than 48 hours a week — see GOV.UK's working time rules.

From April 2026: £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over (the National Living Wage), £10.85 for 18–20 year olds, and £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices. Check GOV.UK for the current rates and exceptions.

Yes. Enter your tax code and the calculator estimates Income Tax and National Insurance using 2026/27 rates, plus pension and student loan if you add them. It is an estimate — your exact pay depends on your payroll — but it uses the same thresholds HMRC applies.

Because tax and National Insurance are taken before you are paid. On £29,250 a year, about £3,336 goes to Income Tax and £1,334 to National Insurance. Pension contributions (usually 5%) and student loan repayments (9% above the threshold) reduce it further.

Yes — Scotland has its own Income Tax bands which differ from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The calculator above uses England/Wales/NI bands; if you pay Scottish Income Tax, your take-home will differ slightly. The GOV.UK Scottish Income Tax page has the current bands.

Graduates repay 9% of earnings above the repayment threshold (postgraduates 6% on a separate threshold). It is taken automatically through payroll, like tax — on a typical £29,250 salary a Plan 2 graduate repays roughly £70–£120 a year, only a few pence per hour worked.

Tax rates, thresholds and the minimum wage are reviewed every year and usually change each April. This page uses 2026/27 figures. When new rates are announced (normally in the Autumn Budget), the calculator and tables are updated — and you can always verify the latest on GOV.UK.

The Bottom Line

Knowing your hourly wage is useful; knowing what it is worth after tax is what actually helps you budget, compare job offers and negotiate pay. A £1-an-hour rise on a 37.5-hour week is worth £1,950 a year before tax — but only about £1,320 of that reaches you after tax and NI, so always look at the take-home figure, not just the headline rate.

It also pays to think in hourly terms even when you are salaried. Two jobs offering £30,000 can be worth very different amounts per hour once you account for contracted hours, unpaid overtime expectations and holiday allowance. Converting every offer to an hourly rate — which takes less than a minute with the calculator above — is the simplest way to compare like with like and make sure you are not leaving money on the table.

And remember that the legal minimum rises most Aprils: what was a fair offer last year may already be below the going rate today. Check your rate against the current minimum wage on GOV.UK whenever you change jobs or negotiate a rise.

Enter your rate in the calculator above, and if you want to dig deeper, try the Salary to Hourly Calculator for converting job offers, or the Annual Salary Calculator for the full breakdown including overtime and bonuses.

Figures use 2026/27 UK tax rates and thresholds. This is an estimate for guidance, not financial advice. Official rates change — verify the latest on GOV.UK.

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