Calculate your new take-home pay after a salary increase
Enter your current salary and pay rise details to see the impact on your take-home pay
UK salary calculations involve multiple deductions from your gross pay before you receive your net take-home amount. This tool applies the current 2025/26 tax year rates to give you an accurate picture of your actual earnings after income tax, National Insurance, and pension contributions.
Knowing your precise take-home pay is essential for budgeting, comparing job offers, and understanding how pay rises affect your monthly income. Due to progressive tax rates, a £5,000 pay rise does not translate to £5,000 more in your pocket.
The UK personal allowance is £12,570, meaning no income tax on the first £12,570 of earnings. The basic rate of 20% applies from £12,571 to £50,270. The higher rate of 40% applies from £50,271 to £125,140. Employee National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above.
On a £35,000 salary, you pay £4,486 income tax and £1,794 National Insurance, giving take-home pay of £28,720 per year or £2,393 per month. Adding a 5% pension contribution via salary sacrifice reduces take-home by £1,260 but puts £1,750 into your pension.
Source: Based on official HMRC 2025/26 tax rates and thresholds. Last updated March 2026.
Use our calculator above for an instant before-and-after comparison. Manually: apply 2025/26 income tax bands to your new salary (0% up to £12,570, 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140, 45% above). Then calculate NI (8% between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above).
Deduct both from your new gross annual salary. Divide by 12 for monthly take-home. Compare to the same calculation on your current salary to find the net increase. Don’t forget student loan if applicable (9% above your plan threshold).
In the UK, only the portion of income that crosses into a new band is taxed at the higher rate — not all your income. So if a rise takes you from £49,000 to £53,000, only the £2,730 above £50,270 is taxed at 40%. The rest remains at 20%.
The exception is the £100,000–£125,140 range where the personal allowance taper creates an effective 60% marginal rate. If a pay rise takes you into this range, it is worth considering pension contributions to reduce your adjusted net income.
A real-terms pay rise (ahead of inflation) is the minimum meaningful benchmark. With CPI inflation at approximately 2.8% in early 2026, a rise of 3% just about maintains purchasing power. ONS data shows UK private sector regular pay growing at around 5.9% year-on-year in late 2025, so anything above 5% is above average for the private sector.
In the public sector, 4–6% was the typical range for 2025 pay awards. A rise of 8–10% or more would represent an exceptional outcome in the current environment.
A 5% rise on £30,000 means a new gross salary of £31,500, an increase of £1,500 per year. Both £30,000 and £31,500 are in the basic rate income tax band (20%) and the 8% NI band. The combined marginal deduction on the £1,500 rise is approximately 28% (20% IT + 8% NI), leaving a net increase of approximately £1,080 per year (£90 per month). If you repay a Plan 2 student loan, subtract an additional £135/year (£11.25/month) in repayments.
Yes. Student loan repayments are income-contingent: you repay 9% (Plan 1, 2, 4) or 6% (Postgraduate) of earnings above your plan’s annual threshold. So if your salary rises by £2,000 and you are on Plan 2 (threshold £28,470), your annual student loan repayment increases by £2,000 × 9% = £180 (£15/month).
This is deducted via PAYE by your employer alongside income tax and NI, so you do not need to do anything — it adjusts automatically. Our calculator shows the student loan impact in the before-and-after comparison.
The UK average regular pay growth (excluding bonuses) was approximately 5.6% across the whole economy in late 2025, based on ONS Average Weekly Earnings data. Private sector workers fared better at approximately 5.9%, while public sector growth was around 4.3%. In real terms (adjusted for 2.8% CPI inflation), average real pay growth was approximately 2.5–3%. This means workers are experiencing genuine gains in purchasing power on average, though the distribution is uneven across sectors and income levels.
Data verified against official UK government sources. Last checked April 2026.