How much National Insurance do I pay?

National Insurance at six salaries

These are estimates for 2026/27 from an annual calculation, for one job in category A with no salary sacrifice. On £35,000, taking off the £12,570 threshold leaves £22,430, and 8% of that is £1,794.40. On £60,000, 8% of the £37,700 between the two limits is £3,016.00, and 2% of the £9,730 above the upper limit is £194.60.

• Employee National Insurance at each of these salaries is the same as in 2025/26, because the rates and thresholds did not change between the two years.

Why the share of pay rises and then falls

National Insurance takes its largest share of pay exactly at the upper earnings limit: about 6.0% of £50,270. Below the limit, each extra pound is charged at 8% while the first £12,570 was charged nothing, so the share climbs without ever reaching 8%. Above the limit, each extra pound is charged at 2%, which is lower than the share already paid, so the share falls: 5.4% of £60,000 and 4.0% of £100,000.

• That is why a pay rise costs different amounts at different salaries. The next £1,000 adds £80.00 of National Insurance on £35,000 and £20.00 on £60,000.

Income Tax and National Insurance together

The two together keep taking a larger share of pay as it rises, because Income Tax goes on climbing after National Insurance's share has started to fall. These rows are on the standard tax code in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with no pension or student loan.

The same across the UK

National Insurance is set for the whole UK, so England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the same rates and thresholds. Scotland's own bands apply to Income Tax only. On £35,000 that means £4,501.07 Income Tax in Scotland against £4,486.00 in the rest of the UK, and £1,794.40 of National Insurance in both.

What your employer pays on top

Your employer pays its own National Insurance on your pay, at 15% above £5,000 a year in 2026/27. It starts lower and has no reduced rate above the upper limit. It does not come out of your pay, so it is not one of your payslip's deductions.

• The employer column is the standard charge for that salary. It does not take off the Employment Allowance, which can reduce what some employers pay in total, and it does not describe every employee, because some of the categories in the list further down have a different employer rate.

Uneven pay: why the annual figure is a model

Payroll does not work National Insurance out on the year. It works on each earnings period, which HMRC's employer guide CWG2 sets by how often you are paid, usually weekly or monthly, using thresholds for that period and with no running total of the kind Income Tax has. Extra pay counts in the period it is paid, whenever it was earned. The figures above spread pay evenly over the year, and the calculation here does not model a single pay period, so this page gives no figure for one week or month. Uneven pay can land on either side of the annual figure.

• A week or month below its threshold leaves part of that threshold unused, and the unused part does not carry over to another period. So pay that rises and falls can cost more than the annual figure.
• In a week or month above its upper limit, everything over that limit is charged at the lower rate, even if the year's pay never reaches the annual limit. So a large one-off payment can cost less over the year than the same money spread evenly, even though that one payslip shows a bigger line.
• Even on steady pay the year's total can differ by a small amount, because the thresholds published for a week or month are rounded.
• Company directors have their own rules in HMRC's guide CA44, which this page does not cover.

Who these figures cover

Every row is for category A, the letter most employees have. It usually appears beside the National Insurance line on a payslip. Other letters change who pays what, and GOV.UK's category letters page lists them all.

• Employees under 21 (M), apprentices under 25 (H) and veterans in their first job since leaving the armed forces (V) pay the employee rates above. Their employers' rate differs, so the employer column does not describe them.
• Eligible employees at Freeport and Investment Zone special tax sites have letters of their own, and the employer column does not describe them either.
• Employees over State Pension age (C) pay no employee National Insurance, so none of the employee figures applies to them. Their employers still pay.
• Married women and widows with a reduced-rate certificate (B), and employees deferring because they already pay in another job (J and Z), have their own employee rates, so no employee figure here is for them.
• Pay from one job between the lower earnings limit, which sits below the threshold, and the threshold itself usually costs no National Insurance. GOV.UK says contributions on it are treated as paid, which protects your National Insurance record.
• Self-employed people pay different classes on profits, which this page does not cover.