Pay Rise Calculator
A rise is not what lands in your account. See the monthly difference after tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension.
A £2,250 rise on £45,000 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland takes the salary to £47,250, and take-home pay up by £1,620.00 a year — £135.00 a month. That is 72p of every extra pound.
Breakdown
- New salary
- £47,250
- Gross increase
- £2,250 (5%)
- Take-home increase
- £1,620.00 a year
- Income tax on the rise
- £450.00
- National Insurance on the rise
- £180.00
- Kept per £1
- 72p
Show your working
What other rises would be worth
| Rise | Gross | In your pocket |
|---|---|---|
| 2% | £900 | £54.00 a month |
| 3% | £1,350 | £81.00 a month |
| 5% | £2,250 | £135.00 a month |
| 10% | £4,500 | £270.00 a month |
Monthly increase in take-home pay, on the same salary and settings.
Where each pound of the rise goes
Deductions apply at your marginal rate, which is why the share kept can be lower than your overall rate.
Assumptions
- 2026/27 rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on a standard tax code.
- A full tax year at the new salary; a rise part-way through the year is worth proportionately less in that year.
- Pension is treated as salary sacrifice, so it reduces the pay that tax and National Insurance are charged on.
- Benefits, bonuses, other salary-sacrifice schemes and any change to means-tested support are not included.
Pay rise facts
- How much of a rise do you keep?
- A basic-rate taxpayer keeps about 72p in the pound after 20% tax and 8% National Insurance. At higher rate it is about 58p.
- Why does a student loan change it so much?
- It takes another 9% of everything above the plan threshold. A higher-rate taxpayer repaying a loan keeps roughly 49p of each extra pound.
- What is the worst band for a rise?
- Between £100,000 and £125,140. The Personal Allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 earned, which makes the effective income tax rate 60% — around 38p kept in the pound once NI is counted.
- Does a pension contribution soften it?
- Under salary sacrifice, yes. The contribution comes off before tax and National Insurance, so more of the rise goes to your pension rather than to deductions — but less of it reaches your bank account now.
Understanding what a rise is worth
Marginal, not average
Deductions on a rise are charged at your marginal rate — the rate on the last pound you earn — not the average rate across your whole salary.
That is why someone on £48,000 whose overall deduction rate is around 25% can find a rise taxed at 40%: the increase crosses into the higher-rate band even though most of their salary does not.
The bands that bite
Two thresholds change the answer sharply. The higher-rate threshold, where income tax steps from 20% to 40% while NI drops from 8% to 2%. And £100,000, where the Personal Allowance starts being withdrawn.
Scotland has more bands and different rates, so the same rise on the same salary is worth a different amount depending on where you pay tax.
Judging the offer
Compare the monthly figure, not the annual headline. A £2,250 rise sounds substantial; a little over £100 a month in the hand is easier to weigh against a longer commute or more responsibility.
Worth checking against inflation too — a rise below the rate of price increases is a real-terms pay cut, however it is described.
Common mistakes and limits
This assumes a standard tax code and a full tax year at the new salary. A rise part-way through the year is worth proportionately less in that year.
Benefits, bonuses, salary-sacrifice schemes other than pension, and any adjustment to your tax code are not modelled. Nor is the loss of means-tested benefits, which can matter more than the tax.
Related calculations
To check the starting figure, the take-home pay calculator breaks a salary down into tax, National Insurance and pension in full. If the rise is going into savings, the savings calculator projects what regular deposits grow to; if it is going at a debt, the credit card payoff calculator shows what paying more each month saves in interest.
Worked example
Someone on £45,000 in England receiving a 5% rise moves to £47,250 — £2,250 more gross.
Take-home goes from £35,919.60 to £37,539.60, an increase of £1,620 a year, or £135 a month. That is 72p of each extra pound: the rise sits entirely in the basic-rate band, so 20% income tax and 8% National Insurance apply to all of it.
Evidence & Methodology
How This Page Is Grounded
Method
Calculates net pay at the current and increased salary using the same UK income tax, National Insurance and student loan model as the take-home pay calculator, then reports the difference and the share of each extra pound retained.
Important limitation: Assumes a standard tax code and a full tax year at the new salary. Benefits, bonuses, salary-sacrifice schemes other than pension and changes to means-tested support are not modelled.
Primary Sources
- Income Tax rates and allowances: current and past HM Revenue & Customs
- National Insurance rates and categories HM Revenue & Customs
- Scottish Income Tax rates and bands 2026 to 2027 Scottish Government
Quality Checks
Net pay at both salaries checked against the take-home pay calculator across basic, higher, Scottish and tapered-allowance cases.
See how sources are selected and corrections are handled in our Editorial & Calculation Methodology, and which automated checks this page has to pass in How We Test.
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