Salary Suite · Income & Tax

Hourly Wage Calculator → Salary & Take-Home

Paid by the hour? Enter your rate and weekly hours to see the annual salary it adds up to — and, more importantly, what you actually keep after 2026/27 income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan. Add overtime lines at time-and-a-half or double time to price up extra shifts after tax.

6 min read· Updated 21 August 2026· 🇬🇧 UK
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Annualised earnings & take-home
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Enter your hourly rate above to see your personalised result.

Key Takeaways

To turn an hourly rate into an annual salary, multiply by your weekly hours and by 52 — £16 × 37.5 × 52 = £31,200 a year. Take-home is lower once 2026/27 income tax (20/40/45%), National Insurance (8%/2%) and any student loan come off: £31,200 gross leaves roughly £25,980. Overtime has no special tax rate — it's added to your pay and taxed at your marginal rate, so a 1.5× hour at £16 is worth about £17.28 net, not £24. The 2026/27 National Living Wage (21+) is £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026.

How it works

How do you convert an hourly rate into an annual salary?

Multiply your hourly rate by your contracted hours per week, then by 52 weeks — £16 an hour at 37.5 hours is £16 × 37.5 × 52 = £31,200 a year before deductions. The arithmetic (rate × hours × 52) is the easy part; the number that actually matters is what survives tax. Once your hours are annualised, this page runs the identical PAYE calculation as the take-home pay calculator: the 2026/27 personal allowance of £12,570, then 20%/40%/45% bands (or the six Scottish bands), employee National Insurance at 8% and 2%, and any student loan on top.

The 52-week multiplier assumes you are paid for every week of the year, including your paid holiday. Most salaried and full-time hourly workers are. If you only work term-time or take unpaid weeks, annualise on the weeks you are actually paid and use the pro-rata salary calculator to model the reduction precisely.

What does £16 an hour work out to after tax with overtime?

£16 an hour at 37.5 hours plus 5 weekly overtime hours at time-and-a-half is £37,440 gross and about £30,476 take-home — roughly £2,540 a month. Base pay is £16 × 37.5 × 52 = £31,200. The overtime is £24 × 5 × 52 = £6,240, for total gross of £37,440. Income tax is (£37,440 − £12,570) × 20% = £4,974 and National Insurance is £1,989.60, leaving £30,476 a year. Notice the overtime added £6,240 gross but only around £4,493 net: each 1.5× overtime hour at this wage is really worth about £17.28 in your pocket, not £24, because 28% goes to tax and NI at the margin.

What do common hourly rates work out to after tax in 2026/27?

At 37.5 hours a week, £15 an hour is about £24,580 take-home and £22 an hour is about £34,408 — the table below runs the current 2026/27 tax and NI on the most-searched rates. Figures assume a standard 1257L tax code, no pension and no student loan; add those in the tool above to see your own number.

Hourly rateAnnual grossApprox. take-home / year/ month
£12.71 (NLW)£24,785£21,364£1,780
£15.00£29,250£24,580£2,048
£18.00£35,100£28,792£2,399
£22.00£42,900£34,408£2,867
£30.00£58,500£44,487£3,707

How many hours a week is full-time in the UK?

There is no legal definition of full-time, but it is usually 35 to 40 hours a week, with 37.5 hours (a 7.5-hour day) the most common — which is why this calculator defaults to it. What the law does set is a ceiling: under the Working Time Regulations you cannot be required to average more than 48 hours a week over a 17-week reference period unless you have voluntarily signed an opt-out (GOV.UK). The weekly-hours figure you enter matters twice over: it sets your annual gross, and it sets what one contracted hour is worth after tax, shown in your result above.

Is overtime taxed at a higher rate than normal pay?

No — overtime has no special tax rate. It is added to your gross pay and taxed at your marginal rate (20%, 40% or 45%) with National Insurance on top, exactly like any other income. The common belief that "overtime is taxed more" comes from two real effects. First, a big month of overtime can temporarily push a payslip into a higher tax band under cumulative PAYE, then correct itself later in the year. Second, only the slice of income above a threshold is taxed at the higher rate — the rest stays at 20% — so your average rate rises far less than the headline band suggests.

Whether overtime counts towards your pension is a separate question set by your scheme: many workplace pensions are calculated on basic pay only, so overtime often does not attract an employer contribution. Enter your regular overtime hours and multiplier in the two overtime lines above (1.5× and 2× are pre-filled) to see the true after-tax value of those extra shifts before you agree to them.

What is the National Living Wage worth per year in 2026/27?

At £12.71 an hour — the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over from 1 April 2026 — full-time work of 37.5 hours a week is about £24,785 a year gross and roughly £21,364 take-home. The rate rose 4.1% in April 2026, worth around £900 a year to a full-time worker (GOV.UK). The other 2026/27 minimum-wage bands are £10.85 for 18–20-year-olds and £8.00 for under-18s and apprentices. Enter your age band in the minimum-wage check above and the tool flags any rate that falls below the legal floor for that band.

How do I work out my hourly rate from an annual salary?

Reverse the calculation: divide the annual salary by 52, then by your weekly hours — £31,200 ÷ 52 ÷ 37.5 = £16 an hour. This is the quickest way to compare an hourly role against a salaried offer on the same footing. To go the other way and check what salary you would need to hit a target take-home, use the required salary calculator; to line an hourly-derived package up against a fixed salary side by side, use compare two salaries.

Income & Tax

When your hours change every week: budgeting, holiday pay and PAYE for hourly workers

By CalculatorDashboard Editorial Team·Updated ·Reviewed ·4 min read

An hourly rate is easy to multiply up into a salary, and the calculator above does that, including overtime. But for many people paid by the hour, the hours themselves aren't fixed. Shift work, agency placements, zero-hours contracts and seasonal jobs all produce pay that rises and falls from week to week. This guide covers how tax, holiday pay and budgeting work when your hours vary.

PAYE smooths your tax over the year

Income tax under PAYE is cumulative. Each payday, payroll compares your total pay so far this tax year with the share of your Personal Allowance you've built up so far. In a busy month you may pay more tax than usual, but in a quiet one you pay less, or even get some back. Over a full year, provided you stay in the same job and your tax code is right, you pay the right amount without doing anything.

National Insurance is different. It is worked out for each pay period on its own, against that period's share of the threshold. A week in which you earn a lot pays National Insurance on everything above the weekly threshold, and a quiet week below it pays none. The annual total can therefore be a little higher than it would be on the same pay spread evenly, and that difference isn't refunded. It's usually small, but it means two people on the same annual pay can see slightly different National Insurance totals.

What the National Living Wage is worth

From April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. Working 37.5 hours a week for 52 weeks, that comes to £24,785 a year before tax. After income tax and National Insurance, with no pension or student loan, it leaves about £21,364, or roughly £1,780 a month.

Fewer hours change the picture more than you might expect. At 25 hours a week the same rate gives £16,523 a year and about £15,416 after deductions, around £296 a week. Because the first £12,570 is tax-free and National Insurance only starts at the same level, someone on lower hours keeps a larger share of each pound they earn.

Holiday pay on irregular hours

All workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, but working out what that means is hard when your hours vary. For irregular-hours and part-year workers, holiday now builds up at 12.07% of the hours you actually work. That figure is 5.6 weeks divided by the 46.4 weeks left in the year once holiday is taken off.

Employers can choose to pay this as rolled-up holiday pay. Instead of paying you when you take leave, they add 12.07% to every hour's pay and show it separately on your payslip. At £12.71 an hour, that adds about £1.53, so your effective rate is about £14.24. It's your holiday money paid in advance. If you spend it as it arrives, your weeks off will be unpaid in practice, so it helps to move the rolled-up part into a separate account each payday.

Budgeting on uneven pay

The most reliable approach is to budget on a lower-than-average month rather than an average one. Look back over the last three to six months of payslips, take your lowest regular take-home figure, and build fixed bills around that. In better months the surplus goes into a buffer you draw on in leaner months. The calculator above helps with this: enter your typical weekly hours to get a baseline, then a lower figure to see the take-home you can count on.

If your hours are seasonal, check your tax code in quiet periods too. Starting a second job, finishing a placement or taking an unpaid month can all leave your code out of step with your income, and it's easier to fix early in the year than after it ends.

Next steps

Use the calculator above for your rate, hours and overtime. If you have more than one job, the two jobs tax calculator shows how the tax codes split, and the pro-rata holiday calculator works out your entitlement in hours or days.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert an hourly rate to an annual salary?
Multiply the hourly rate by your contracted hours per week, then by 52 weeks. £16 an hour at 37.5 hours a week is £16 × 37.5 × 52 = £31,200 gross a year. This calculator then applies 2026/27 income tax, National Insurance and any student loan or pension to show the net figure.
How much is £15 an hour after tax in the UK?
At 37.5 hours a week, £15 an hour is £29,250 a year. For 2026/27 with a 1257L tax code that attracts £3,336 income tax and £1,334.40 employee National Insurance, leaving roughly £24,580 a year — about £2,048 a month before pension or student loan deductions.
How is overtime pay taxed?
Overtime is ordinary income — it is added to your gross pay and taxed at your marginal rate with National Insurance on top. There is no separate overtime tax rate. Enter your regular overtime hours and multiplier (1.5× and 2× lines are provided) to see the true after-tax value of those extra hours.
What is the National Living Wage for 2026/27?
From April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. The 18–20 rate is £10.85 and the under-18/apprentice rate is £8.00. The calculator warns you if the hourly rate you enter falls below the legal minimum for your selected age band.
Does working fewer weeks a year change the calculation?
Yes — the annualisation assumes 52 paid weeks. If you work term-time only or take unpaid weeks, your annual gross is lower and proportionally less tax applies. Use the pro-rata salary calculator in this suite to model reduced weeks precisely.
Is this calculator suitable for zero-hours or agency work?
It gives a good estimate if your hours are fairly steady — enter your average weekly hours. Highly variable hours are taxed cumulatively through PAYE across the year, so individual payslips will vary even though the annual total matches this calculation.
How do I work out my hourly rate from my annual salary?
Divide the annual salary by 52 weeks, then by your weekly hours. £31,200 ÷ 52 ÷ 37.5 = £16 an hour. Reversing the calculation this way lets you compare an hourly job against a salaried offer on equal terms — the required salary calculator does the same in the other direction.
Does this hourly wage calculation include holiday pay?
Yes — multiplying by 52 weeks assumes you are paid for the whole year including your statutory holiday, so the annual gross already includes paid leave. If you work term-time only or take unpaid weeks, annualise on the weeks you are actually paid and use the pro-rata salary calculator instead.
Salary Suite · Core
Take-Home Pay Calculator

The full salary version — bonus, benefits, every pension type and all the advanced options.

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Salary Suite · Part-time
Pro-Rata Salary Calculator

Dropping to reduced hours? See the pro-rata gross and what it means after tax.

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Salary Suite · Multiple jobs
Two Jobs Tax Calculator

Combining hourly work with a second job? Get the correct combined tax position.

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Disclaimer: Figures are estimates based on current rates and rules. Tax legislation may change. Verify with GOV.UK or consult a qualified accountant before making financial decisions based on these figures.