UK salary calculators

What each calculator does

• Take-home: enter a yearly salary and tax code to see pay after income tax, employee National Insurance, pension and any student loan. Also on its own page: the take-home pay calculator by tax code.
• Gross-up: start from the take-home you want and work back to the salary that gives it. Also on its own page: the gross-up calculator.
• Salary sacrifice: see what swapping part of a salary for a pension contribution does to take-home pay. Salary sacrifice is a change to the employment contract, not a payroll setting, so it has to be agreed and put in writing before the pay it covers, not afterwards.
• Statutory pay: estimate Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay from average weekly earnings. Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week or 80% of normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower, and is paid for up to 28 weeks.
• Employer cost: add employer's National Insurance and the employer's pension contribution to a salary, to see what a hire really costs each year.
• Director: compare different mixes of salary and dividends. Also on its own page: the salary vs dividends calculator.
• PAYE penalty calculator: on its own page, the PAYE penalty calculator estimates the penalty for a late or missing FPS, or for paying HMRC late.
• Employer of Record cost calculator: on its own page, the Employer of Record cost calculator compares a year of Employer of Record fees with running your own UK payroll.

The 2026 to 2027 figures behind them

The tax year runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. With the standard Personal Allowance of £12,570, income tax is 0% up to £12,570, 20% from £12,571 to £50,270, 40% from £50,271 to £125,140 and 45% over £125,140. The allowance goes down by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, so it is zero at £125,140 or above.

Employee National Insurance on the standard category letter A is 8% on earnings between £242 and £967 a week, and 2% above that.

For most employees, UK employer's National Insurance is 15% of whatever they earn above £5,000 a year. The employer pays it, not the employee. Employment Allowance may cancel out the employer's National Insurance altogether. For 2026 to 2027 it's £10,500. You can only claim it if both of these are true: you're a business or public body, and less than half your work is in the public sector. There are more conditions, including one for companies with a single director and one for groups of connected companies, so we wouldn't decide it for you without asking.

For a workplace pension, the minimum total contribution is 8% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, and the employer pays at least 3% of it.

When your answer will be different

If you live in Scotland: income tax bands are different in Scotland, and these calculators use the rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

If your company is based outside the UK: the employer cost tab assumes employer's National Insurance is due, and it may not be. HMRC's rule is that an employer owes UK employer's National Insurance if it is resident, present or has a place of business in Great Britain. Having no UK office or place of business doesn't on its own remove UK employer's National Insurance, because where a social security agreement applies, it treats the employer as if it were based in the UK. Our route finder works through it with you.

Every figure here is an estimate for guidance, not personal tax advice.