From £15 an hour to a packet
Updated 12 November 2026 · Tax year 2026/27 · England, Wales or Northern Ireland · No pension · No student loan · 37.5 hours × 52 paid weeks
Scope: converting an hourly rate to annual take-home. For salaried roles see the salary guides.
An hourly rate is not a salary until the hours are stated. This page converts £15 an hour into an annual gross using 37.5 hours a week and 52 paid weeks, then runs the same 2026/27 tax and employee NI engine as the homepage calculator. A contract with fewer hours, unpaid weeks, overtime premia or holiday pay will not match. Illustrative only — not a rota promise and not a payslip. Publisher: Rodway Labs · hello@takehomelab.co.uk.
Worked example — £15 × 37.5 × 52
- Hourly rate × hours × weeks: £15 × 37.5 × 52 = £29,250.00 gross in this model
- Personal allowance: £12,570.00
- Taxable pay: £16,680.00
- Income tax: £3,336.00
- Employee National Insurance: £1,334.40
- Take-home: £24,579.60 a year (£2,048.30 a month · £472.68 a week)
EXAMPLE At £29,250 you are still inside the rest-of-UK basic-rate band and the NI main rate. Each extra hour at £15 adds £15 gross before tax and NI; the calculator is the clean way to test 30-hour or 40-hour contracts instead of scaling this page by eye.
Nearby salary pages once you think in annual terms: What’s £30k take-home pay?.
Why hours dominate the conversion
Two people on £15 an hour can have very different packets. A 30-hour week at 46 paid weeks is not this illustration. Night rates, bank-holiday uplift and unpaid gaps all sit outside the £29,250 gross. Convert your own hours to an annual gross first, then paste that gross into the calculator — do not multiply the monthly figure on this page by a different hour count.
How the figures were produced
Gross = 15 × 37.5 × 52. Tax and NI use js/tax.js for 2026/27 rest-of-UK bands (personal allowance £12,570; NI primary threshold £12,570; main rate 8%). Method: methodology. NI is modelled on the year, not each pay period.
Hourly to yearly lookup — 37.5 hours, 52 weeks
Gross is hourly rate × 37.5 × 52. £12.71 is the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026.
| Hourly | Yearly gross | Take-home a year | A month | Scotland a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £12.71 | £24,784.50 | £21,364.44 | £1,780.37 | £21,404.11 |
| £13.00 | £25,350.00 | £21,771.60 | £1,814.30 | £21,811.27 |
| £15.00 | £29,250.00 | £24,579.60 | £2,048.30 | £24,619.27 |
| £18.00 | £35,100.00 | £28,791.60 | £2,399.30 | £28,775.53 |
| £20.00 | £39,000.00 | £31,599.60 | £2,633.30 | £31,544.53 |
| £25.00 | £48,750.00 | £38,619.60 | £3,218.30 | £37,398.55 |
| £30.00 | £58,500.00 | £44,487.40 | £3,707.28 | £42,767.35 |
Scroll sideways to see the whole table →
£15 an hour in Scotland
On £29,250 Scottish income tax is £3,296.33 against £3,336.00 elsewhere, because the starter band saves more than the small intermediate slice costs. Scottish take-home is £24,619.27, £39.67 a year more.
£15 an hour with a Plan 5 student loan
Plan 5 takes 9% above £25,000: 9% × £4,250 = £382.50 a year (£31.88 a month). Take-home becomes £24,197.10. Plan 2 (£29,385 threshold) would take nothing at this pay. See Plan 5.
Minimum rates from April 2026
| Age | Hourly rate | 37.5 h × 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| 21 and over (National Living Wage) | £12.71 | £24,784.50 |
| 18 to 20 | £10.85 | £21,157.50 |
| Under 18 and apprentices | £8.00 | £15,600.00 |
Scroll sideways to see the whole table →
Source: GOV.UK minimum wage rates.
Edge cases
- Holiday pay. Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year (28 days for a five-day week). The 52-week model includes it. If you are only paid for weeks worked, use about 46.4 weeks.
- Overtime. Overtime is taxed the same as normal pay. It can look heavily taxed in a big week because PAYE and NI are worked out each pay period.
- Irregular hours. On zero-hours or variable contracts, weekly NI is charged above £242 a week. A quiet week below that has no NI, and a busy week pays more.
- Two jobs. The personal allowance usually goes on one job; the other uses code BR.
Frequently asked questions
What is £15 an hour monthly?
At 37.5 hours, £2,437.50 gross and about £2,048.30 take-home.
Is holiday included?
This model assumes 52 paid weeks, so paid holiday is included. If holiday is unpaid, reduce the weeks.
How do I turn an hourly rate into a yearly salary?
Multiply the hourly rate by your paid hours a week and by your paid weeks a year. £15 × 37.5 hours × 52 weeks is £29,250 gross a year. Enter that as the salary in the calculator to see the take-home.
Why does my payslip differ from this calculator?
The calculator models a whole tax year on a standard 1257L tax code. Your payslip is worked out pay period by pay period, so a different or emergency tax code, a bonus month, overtime, benefits in kind or a different pension arrangement will move the figure. National Insurance and student loan repayments are also assessed each pay period rather than across the year. If the two disagree, trust the payslip and check your tax code in your HMRC personal tax account.
£15 an hour at different weekly hours
| Hours a week | Yearly gross | Take-home a year | A month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 hours | £12,480.00 | £12,480.00 | £1,040.00 |
| 20 hours | £15,600.00 | £14,751.60 | £1,229.30 |
| 30 hours | £23,400.00 | £20,367.60 | £1,697.30 |
| 37.5 hours | £29,250.00 | £24,579.60 | £2,048.30 |
| 40 hours | £31,200.00 | £25,983.60 | £2,165.30 |
Scroll sideways to see the whole table →
At 16 hours a week, gross pay is under the £12,570 personal allowance, so no tax or NI is due in the annual model.
What this page does not decide
It does not convert a rota, set holiday pay, or say £15 an hour is “enough”. Tax code, pension and student loan are off in this baseline so the hour→salary bridge stays readable.
Sources (checked 12 November 2026): HMRC rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. Illustrative only — not tax advice. Rodway Labs.