Estimate take-home pay for living wage hourly rates using hours per week, tax, NI, pension, and student loan assumptions.
Use this page to compare living-wage take-home pay examples and then adjust hours, tax year, pension and student-loan assumptions in the salary calculator. Statutory National Living Wage checks still depend on worker category, pay period and hours.
Set your hourly rate and weekly hours to see what reaches your bank account.
Of £24,784.50 gross a year: Income Tax £2,442.90, National Insurance £977.16, Take-home £21,364.44.
Saving £90 a month — about 5% of this take-home — becomes £5,956.11 in five years at an example 4%: try the savings calculator.
2026/27 rates, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no student loan. Open the full calculator to change region, student loan or pension method.
Payslip showing different figures? The payslip checker works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and shows which assumption could explain the gap.
Minimum-wage outputs are estimates for modelling only. Actual compliance depends on worker category, pay period, hours, deductions, benefits, accommodation, and employer scheme design.
| Status | Close to guardrail |
|---|---|
| Annual minimum-wage guardrail | £24,785 |
| Shortfall against guardrail | £0 |
| Accommodation offset | Accommodation offset is not modelled in this calculator. |
| Advice status | This is an estimate only. It does not decide employer compliance, legal entitlement, payroll correctness, or whether a worker has been underpaid. |
This estimate is close to the selected minimum-wage guardrail. Check age or apprentice category, pay period, working hours, employer payroll treatment, deductions, benefits, and scheme design.
Actual checks depend on age or apprentice category, pay period, working time, deductions, benefits, employer payroll treatment and scheme design.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| Gross pay | Employment pay before PAYE deductions and pension or loan settings. |
|---|---|
| Income Tax | Tax estimated from the selected tax-year, region, tax code and taxable-pay assumptions. |
| National Insurance | Employee NI is calculated separately from Income Tax and may not follow the same bands. |
| Pension and loans | Pension method and student-loan plan can change take-home pay and payslip comparisons. |
| Pension contribution | Changing the rate or method can change taxable income, National Insurance and take-home pay. |
|---|---|
| Tax code and region | Scottish Income Tax, Welsh codes, emergency tax or a non-standard tax code can move the result. |
| Student loan plan | A different plan can change deductions because each plan uses its own threshold and repayment rate. |
| Bonus, overtime or second job | Extra pay and payroll timing can make a real payslip differ from the smooth annual estimate. |
| Tax code | HMRC tax-code changes, K codes, BR/D codes, or emergency markers can change PAYE deductions. |
|---|---|
| Cumulative basis | Week 1, Month 1 or non-cumulative payroll can differ from a smooth annual calculator estimate. |
| Pension method | Relief at source, net pay and salary sacrifice can affect taxable pay and take-home pay differently. |
| Payroll timing | Bonus, overtime, arrears, refunds, cut-off dates and corrections can all move a single payslip. |
| Why is the tax on my payslip higher than expected? | payslip difference |
|---|---|
| What do the main payslip lines mean? | payslip explainer |
| What tax code should I use for modelling? | tax code |
| How much does pension reduce take-home pay? | pension comparison |
| How does this affect a monthly budget? | budget planning |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The figures on this page are worked from living wage, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
Living wage phrases can refer to statutory National Living Wage or separate voluntary living-wage benchmarks. PayBreakdown treats this as an editable take-home-pay estimate, not a compliance ruling.
This estimate is worked out on £24,785 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
Not always. National Living Wage is a statutory rate, while living-wage phrases can also refer to voluntary benchmarks. Check the rate and source before comparing take-home pay.
No. It estimates take-home pay and highlights assumptions. Employer compliance depends on worker category, pay period, working hours, deductions and scheme design.
Yes. Use the linked salary calculator or hourly-to-salary examples to adjust pension and student-loan assumptions.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.