Minimum wage after tax salary: what each age band takes home

What an after tax salary really means on minimum wage

When people look up their after tax salary, they usually want a single number: what lands in the bank each month. That figure is not the same as your hourly rate, your contracted salary or your gross pay. Three separate numbers get mixed together:

• the statutory hourly rate that applies to your age band
• the gross salary quoted in your contract or in a job advert
• your take-home pay once Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan deductions have been taken

Our UK Minimum Wage reference pages list the statutory rates. This guide explains how those rates turn into an after tax salary, and where age bands and eligibility rules change the answer.

The statutory rates by age band

Statutory rates are reviewed each April on the recommendation of the independent Low Pay Commission and published through GOV.UK guidance.

21 and over: National Living Wage

£12.71 an hour. This is the rate most full-time adverts assume, and at 40 hours a week it produces about £26,437 gross a year.

18 to 20: National Minimum Wage

£10.85 an hour in the published table, giving roughly £22,568 gross at 40 hours. Some published summaries quote a lower figure for this age band, so check GOV.UK guidance directly rather than relying on a calculator alone.

Under 18 and apprentices

£8.00 an hour, or about £16,640 gross at 40 hours. Apprentices aged under 19, or in the first year of their apprenticeship, are normally entitled to the apprentice rate whatever their age. Once that first year ends or they turn 19, they move onto the rate for their age band.

Why the bands matter

Eligibility is not simply about a birthday. The age reached on the last day of the pay reference period generally decides which rate applies, which is why two people doing identical work can be on different hourly rates. Apprentice eligibility also depends on the year of the apprenticeship and the type of programme, so it is worth checking your contract and current statutory rates rather than assuming.

From hourly rate to after tax salary

Two thresholds do most of the work. The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, which is tax-free. Income Tax is then 20% on earnings up to £50,270. Employee National Insurance starts at the same level for most people on the standard 1257L tax code, is charged at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, and falls to 2% above that. The two are calculated separately on the same pay, so they are added together to give your total deduction.

A 40-hour week on the National Living Wage

Gross pay is about £2,203 a month, or £26,437 a year. Deductions come to roughly £2,773 in Income Tax and £1,109 in employee National Insurance, leaving an after tax salary of about £1,880 a month, or £22,555 a year. Weekly take-home is around £434.

A 37.5-hour week

Gross falls to about £24,785 a year. Take-home before any pension is roughly £1,780 a month, or £21,365 a year, with weekly pay of about £411. Because a smaller gross uses less of the Personal Allowance, the effective deduction rate at this level sits around 14%.

Part-time hours

Below roughly 16 hours a week on the National Living Wage, annual gross is about £10,600, which is under the Personal Allowance. On a standard tax code you would normally pay no Income Tax, and if weekly pay stays under the National Insurance threshold you would pay no employee National Insurance either, so your after tax salary is close to your gross.

Pension, student loans and Scotland

Workplace pensions change take-home pay. Under automatic enrolment a common employee contribution is 5% of qualifying earnings above £120 a week, which at 40 hours on the National Living Wage comes to roughly £694 a year and reduces monthly take-home to around £1,824. Pension contributions also attract tax relief, so the real cost to you is lower than that headline figure.

Student loan repayments depend on your plan. Published thresholds include £25,000 for Plan 5, £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 and £21,000 for postgraduate loans, charged at 9% or 6% on earnings above the threshold. At 40 hours on the National Living Wage a Plan 5 borrower would repay a small amount each month; at 37.5 hours the gross of about £24,785 sits under the Plan 5 threshold, so nothing would be due.

Scottish Income Tax uses different bands and rates. At minimum wage levels the Scottish bill is slightly lower than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so an after tax salary can differ by jurisdiction even when the hourly rate is identical.

Advertised salaries versus take-home pay

Job adverts quote gross pay, almost always. An advert offering a round figure near the National Living Wage will produce take-home in the same region as the figures above, not the advertised number. For context, ONS Average Weekly Earnings figures put total pay across the whole economy at roughly £745 a week, which is well above minimum wage levels and falls into a different pattern of deductions. NHS Agenda for Change pay bands sit above the statutory minimum in most cases as well, which is why advertised salaries in public sector roles rarely match the national minimum figures.

Working out your own after tax salary

Check four things before you trust any calculator: your age band and eligibility, your contracted hours, your tax code, and whether you pay into a pension or repay a student loan. Tax code errors are common and are usually corrected once HMRC has been told. If your payslip does not match your own arithmetic, ask payroll to explain each entry rather than assuming the estimate is right. Our pay guides walk through payslip basics, and pay data shows how hourly rates compare across sectors and regions.