Pay Rise Calculator 2026/27
See how much of a pay rise reaches your bank account after tax, NI and student loan, and whether it beats inflation.
Last updated: October 2026 · 2026/27 tax rates
Your rise
New salary: £47,250.00 (+5.00%)
Your tax code starts with S.
Default: ONS CPI, 3.1% in the 12 months to August 2026 (published 16 September 2026). Change it to your own figure.
Extra take-home pay
+£1,620.00 a year
+£135.00 a month from a +£2,250.00 rise. You keep 72.0% of it.
+£187.50 a month
Tax, NI and student loan
After 3.1% inflation, in today's money
Before and after
| Per year | Now | After rise | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £45,000.00 | £47,250.00 | +£2,250.00 |
| Income tax | £6,486.00 | £6,936.00 | +£450.00 |
| National Insurance | £2,594.40 | £2,774.40 | +£180.00 |
| Take-home | £35,919.60 | £37,539.60 | +£1,620.00 |
| Take-home per month | £2,993.30 | £3,128.30 | +£135.00 |
Against inflation of 3.1%
Your gross pay rises 5.00%, which is +1.84% in real terms.
Your take-home rises 4.51%, which is +1.37% in real terms.
To keep your take-home level with inflation you would need a salary of £46,546.54, a rise of 3.44%.
How it works
The calculator works out your full 2026/27 take-home pay twice, once on your current salary and once on the new one, using the same income tax, National Insurance and student loan rules as our salary calculator. The difference is what the rise is really worth. Working it out this way, rather than applying a single rate to the rise, means it is right even when the rise straddles a threshold.
Worked example. A 5% rise on £45,000 takes you to £47,250.00, an extra £2,250.00 gross. All of it sits in the basic-rate band, so 20% income tax and 8% NI come off: you keep £1,620.00 a year, or £135.00 a month. Against CPI of 3.1% that is a real-terms gain of £491.26 in take-home.
The real-terms figures divide the new pay by (1 + inflation). The default is the latest ONS Consumer Prices Index 12-month rate, 3.1% for August 2026. If your own costs are rising faster, for example because your rent or mortgage is being reset, put your own figure in. Our inflation calculator shows what prices have done over longer periods.
Your average tax rate is lower than your marginal rate, because the first £12,570 is tax-free and lower bands come first. A rise is taxed entirely at your marginal rate, the rate on your top slice of pay. So someone on £45,000 loses about 20% of their whole salary to tax and NI, but 28% of their rise.
Moving from £48,000 to £53,000 shows the effect of a threshold. Part of that £5,000 is above £50,270, where income tax rises to 40% while NI drops to 2%, so you keep £3,217.80, or 64.4% of the rise.
A student loan adds another 9% on pay above your plan threshold, so a basic-rate graduate on Plan 2 keeps 63% of a rise rather than 72%. In Scotland the higher rate starts at £43,662, below the NI Upper Earnings Limit of £50,270, so between the two a rise loses 50% to tax and NI.
Salary calculators
This calculator is part of a family. The main calculator covers the general case.
Main calculator: Salary Calculator
Annual, monthly and weekly take-home pay after PAYE, NI, pension and student loan.
Related calculators
Other free UK tools that follow on from this calculation.
Salary Calculator
Annual, monthly and weekly take-home pay after PAYE, NI, pension and student loan.
Reverse Salary Calculator
Net to gross: the salary you need to earn to take home a target amount after tax, NI and pension.
Bonus Tax Calculator
How much of your bonus you actually keep after tax, NI and student loan, and what sacrifice saves.
Inflation Calculator
Adjust values for UK CPI inflation to see the real purchasing power of money.
Reviewed by Alexandre Bernier, LLM (UK), CFP®
Educational tool: estimates only. Not individual financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Using it does not create an adviser-client relationship. Rules and figures change; check them against current HMRC and GOV.UK guidance and speak to a qualified professional. Editorial policy →
Sources
Every rate and threshold used by this calculator is taken from the official pages below. If a figure here disagrees with one of these, the official page is right, please tell us.