Full-time on the £12.71 National Living Wage is £24,785 a year — about £21,364 after tax, £1,780 a month. Every age band's rate.
At the £12.71 National Living Wage, 37.5 hours a week over 52 weeks is £24,785 a year before deductions, and £26,437 at 40 hours. Both sit above the Personal Allowance and the National Insurance primary threshold, so full-time minimum-wage pay is taxed. A full-time year at that rate leaves about £21,364 after Income Tax and National Insurance.
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 minimum wage, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
Your band is set by your age, not by the job you do. GOV.UK publishes one rate per band, and the rates below hold from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. A birthday does not raise your pay on the day it falls: the new rate applies from the start of the next pay reference period, meaning the week or month your employer next pays you for.
The annual equivalent is the hourly rate multiplied by contracted weekly hours and by 52 weeks. That multiplier assumes statutory holiday is paid rather than worked as extra weeks, and unpaid breaks pull the real figure down.
Each deduction is charged only on the pay above its own threshold, never on the whole amount. Income Tax starts once taxable pay for the year passes the £12,570 Personal Allowance. For National Insurance this page works to an annualised £12,570 primary threshold, which is the yearly equivalent of the weekly and monthly figures payroll runs on rather than a published annual limit. The two thresholds are set at the same amount this year, and they are separate rules that are not required to move together. At the £12.71 National Living Wage across 52 weeks, the Personal Allowance works out at roughly 19 hours a week.
The two then behave differently through the year. PAYE Income Tax is normally cumulative, so a heavy week that pushes pay over the threshold is settled against the rest of the year. National Insurance is worked out on each pay period on its own, and a quiet period later does not give it back. That is also why the annual National Insurance figure here is a modelling convenience: it holds on steady pay and drifts on uneven pay.
Take the £12.71 rate at 37.5 hours a week for 52 weeks, which gives £24,785 of gross pay. Subtracting the Personal Allowance leaves £12,215 taxable, and the Income Tax on that comes to £2,443. National Insurance on the pay above the primary threshold comes to £977. What is left is £21,364 a year, or about £1,780 a month.
None of that pay reaches the higher rate band or the National Insurance upper earnings limit, so one Income Tax rate and one National Insurance rate apply across the whole of it. The figures assume a standard tax code, England, Wales or Northern Ireland rates, no pension contribution and no student loan. Each of those moves the result, and the calculator above this section takes your own rate and hours.
Deductions for uniform, tools or transport can pull pay below the minimum even when the headline hourly rate looks right. HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage, and a formal check turns on payroll and working-time records this page does not hold.
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.
No. It gives a modelling estimate. Actual compliance depends on age or apprentice category, pay period, hours, deductions, benefits and scheme design.
It does not read your age. The worker category control on this page picks which published rate the guardrail compares against, and the take-home estimate is built from the hourly rate and the weekly hours you enter. Put your own band's rate in and everything below it follows from that.
Usually a workplace pension, a student loan plan with its own threshold, or fewer paid hours than the contracted figure once unpaid breaks are taken out. Overtime and shift premiums push it the other way.
Yes. Salary sacrifice can reduce cash pay, so any salary-sacrifice scenario needs a separate employer or payroll check against the relevant guardrail.
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.