Hourly wage after tax: £12 to £25 an hour

At £15 an hour on a 37.5 hour week you take home about £473 a week, or £2,048 a month, after Income Tax and National Insurance in 2026/27. That is £12.60 for each hour you work. Across the range from £12 to £25 an hour, between 87p and 79p of each pound reaches you, because the share taken by tax and National Insurance grows with pay. These figures assume a 1257L tax code in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, no pension and no student loan. Try your own hours in the take-home pay calculator.

The table

Annual pay is the hourly rate multiplied by 37.5 hours and 52 weeks, so 1,950 hours. Weekly and monthly take-home pay are that figure after tax divided by 52 and 12.

Hourly rate	Gross per year	Take-home per week	Take-home per month	Take-home per hour	Share kept
£12.00	£23,400	£391.68	£1,697.30	£10.44	87.0%
£12.71	£24,784.50	£410.85	£1,780.37	£10.96	86.2%
£13.00	£25,350	£418.68	£1,814.30	£11.16	85.9%
£14.00	£27,300	£445.68	£1,931.30	£11.88	84.9%
£15.00	£29,250	£472.68	£2,048.30	£12.60	84.0%
£16.00	£31,200	£499.68	£2,165.30	£13.32	83.3%
£18.00	£35,100	£553.68	£2,399.30	£14.76	82.0%
£20.00	£39,000	£607.68	£2,633.30	£16.20	81.0%
£22.00	£42,900	£661.68	£2,867.30	£17.64	80.2%
£25.00	£48,750	£742.68	£3,218.30	£19.80	79.2%

£12.71 is the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over from 1 April 2026. The Real Living Wage, a voluntary rate paid by accredited employers, is £14.10 across the UK and £15.45 in London. The National Living Wage and the Real Living Wage guides explain the difference.

Why each extra pound is worth less

Every pound above £12,570 a year is taxed at 20% and attracts 8% National Insurance, so you keep 72p of each. Up to that point you keep all of it. That is why the share kept falls as the rate rises: the free allowance is a smaller part of a larger pay packet. The £25 an hour figure is £48,750 a year, which is still below the £50,270 point where the 40% rate begins.

If your hours are different

The table uses 37.5 hours, the full-time week in the NHS. Other hours change the figures because the allowance is spread over fewer or more hours:

• £15 an hour for 40 hours a week is £31,200 a year and £499.68 a week after tax, or £12.49 an hour kept.
• £15 an hour for 30 hours is £23,400 a year and £391.68 a week, or £13.06 an hour kept.

Fewer hours keep a bigger share of each hour because more of the pay falls under the allowance. Part-time take-home pay shows how this works with pro rata salaries, and converting hourly pay to an annual salary covers the other direction.

What the table leaves out

Pension contributions, a student loan, overtime and a different tax code all change the result. A Plan 2 loan, for instance, takes 9% of pay above £29,385 a year. At £15 an hour that is £29,250, so no repayment arises, but at £16 it takes about £163 a year. Take-home pay on the National Living Wage works through the lowest rate with a pension. Scottish taxpayers pay different rates on income above the allowance, and salary after tax in Scotland compares them.