England & Wales · 2026/27
£21 an hour is £40,950 a year
On a 37.5-hour week, £21 an hour is £40,950 gross — and £33,003.60 after income tax and National Insurance, which is £2,750.30 a month.
- Take-home a year
- £33,003.60
- £2,750.30 a month · £634.68 a week
- Total deductions
- £7,946.40
- 19.4% of gross pay
- On your next £100
- 28%
- You keep £72 of the next £100
- Cost to employ you
- £46,342.50
- Includes £5,392.50 of employer NI absent from your payslip
- The wedge
- 28.8%
- Share of that cost that never reaches you
£21 an hour in context
On a 37.5-hour week £21 an hour is £40,950 a year, which is inside the basic rate and carries a marginal rate of 28%. The practical consequence is overtime: an extra hour is worth £15.12 in your hand rather than the £21 on the rota, because overtime is taxed at your marginal rate rather than your average one.
That gap is why an overtime week so often feels like it paid less than the hours implied. It has not been taxed at a special rate — it has simply landed on top of everything else you earned, in the band where your income already sat.
It depends how many hours you work
An hourly rate is not an annual salary until you fix the week. The same £21 an hour is £21,840 at half time and £43,680 on a 40-hour week — and because income tax is banded, the take-home does not scale in step with the hours.
| Week | Gross a year | Take-home a year | A month | A week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37.5 hours the common UK full-time week | £40,950 | £33,003.60 | £2,750.30 | £634.68 |
| 40 hours a 40-hour week | £43,680 | £34,969.20 | £2,914.10 | £672.48 |
| 35 hours a 35-hour week | £38,220 | £31,038 | £2,586.50 | £596.88 |
| 20 hours half time | £21,840 | £19,244.40 | £1,603.70 | £370.08 |
Assumes every week is paid, including holiday. If you are paid only for weeks worked — agency or term-time — multiply by your paid weeks instead of 52.
£21 an hour by shift, day and week
An hourly rate is paid by the shift, not by the year, and the figures below are the ones that turn up on a rota. They are gross: the deduction rate rises with total annual pay, so a single shift is not taxed at a rate of its own.
| Worked | Gross | After tax at this annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| One hour | £21 | £15.12 |
| A 4-hour shift | £84 | £60.48 |
| An 8-hour day | £168 | £120.96 |
| A 12-hour shift | £252 | £181.44 |
| A 37.5-hour week | £787.50 | £567 |
| A 5-day week at 8 hours | £840 | £604.80 |
The right-hand column applies this salary's marginal rate of 28%, which is what an EXTRA shift is worth once you are already earning £40,950. A first shift in a year with no other income would be taxed at nothing at all, because the personal allowance covers it.
Where the money goes
- Take-home £33,003.60 71.2%
- Your NI £2,270.40 4.9%
- Income tax £5,676 12.2%
- Employer NI £5,392.50 11.6%
£21 an hour elsewhere in the UK
Income tax is devolved to Scotland and National Insurance is not, so the same hourly rate leaves a different amount either side of the border.
| Where you live | Gross a year | Take-home | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | £40,950 | £33,003.60 | — |
| Scotland | £40,950 | £32,929.03 | −£74.57 |
The arithmetic on £40,950
| Step | Applied to | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | — | — | £40,950 |
| Personal allowance | tax-free | 0% | −£12,570 |
| Taxable income | — | — | £28,380 |
| Basic rate | £28,380 of it | 20% | £5,676 |
| Income tax | — | — | £5,676 |
| National Insurance — main rate | £28,380 of it | 8% | £2,270.40 |
| National Insurance | — | — | £2,270.40 |
| Take-home pay | — | — | £33,003.60 |
Adding the deductions gives £7,946.40, and £40,950 less that is the £33,003.60 take-home above. National Insurance is charged per pay period rather than annually, so a month containing a bonus can pay more than this.
What £40,950 a year is close to
An hourly rate is only a salary once the hours are fixed, so everything below is measured against the £40,950 that £21 an hour comes to on a 37.5-hour week. Work different hours and the thresholds do not move — your position between them does.
£40,950 sits between two things that matter. £7,155 below you is the Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold, and £9,320 above you is the National Insurance upper earnings limit — so this salary is already past one change and approaching another.
| What changes | At | From here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold | £33,795 | −£7,155 | passed |
| National Insurance upper earnings limit | £50,270 | +£9,320 | ahead |
| Higher rate | £50,271 | +£9,321 | ahead |
| Plan 2 repayment threshold | £29,385 | −£11,565 | passed |
Measured against the 2026/27 parameters for England, Wales & Northern Ireland. Distances are on gross pay before any salary sacrifice, because that is the figure every one of these thresholds is tested against.
- £33,795 — Plan 4 (Scotland) takes 9% of the £7,155 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £50,270 — Above it your own National Insurance falls from 8% to 2%. That is £9,320 away, and it is the reason the higher rate stings less at the margin than the headline jump suggests.
- £50,271 — Crossing it does not re-tax what you already earn — only the pounds above it move to the higher rate, which is the single most misunderstood thing about UK income tax.
- £29,385 — Plan 2 takes 9% of the £11,565 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
If your rate or hours changed
A swing of ten per cent either way from £40,950 does not cross a single band: the rate on further pay stays at 28% across the whole range from £36,855 to £45,045. That makes this an unusually predictable place to be paid, and it means the arithmetic below scales — a rise of any size in that range is worth the same proportion in your hand.
| If pay moved | Gross | Take-home | Change | Next £100 taxed at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| −10% | £36,855 | £30,055.20 | −£2,948.40 | 28% |
| −5% | £38,903 | £31,529.76 | −£1,473.84 | 28% |
| +5% | £42,998 | £34,478.16 | +£1,474.56 | 28% |
| +10% | £45,045 | £35,952 | +£2,948.40 | 28% |
What a pension contribution buys at this rate
There is no threshold within reach below £40,950, so a pension contribution here is not about ducking under anything — it is simply the ordinary trade. Sacrificing £2,000 costs you £1,440 in take-home, because 28% of it was never going to reach you anyway, and puts the full £2,000 into the pot. That is £2,000 of saving for £1,440 of spending power — a ratio of 1.39 to one, and it is the same ratio for every pound until the next band.
Student loans at this rate
Every one of the five repayment thresholds is behind this salary, so whichever plan you are on, you are repaying. Which plan you are on is not a choice, and the difference between them at this salary is £553.05 a year, so it is worth knowing which one your payslip is deducting.
| Plan | Starts at | Repaid a year | A month | Your next £100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £1,197 | £99.75 | 34% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £1,435.50 | £119.63 | 37% |
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £1,264.50 | £105.38 | 37% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £1,040.85 | £86.74 | 37% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | £643.95 | £53.66 | 37% |
A postgraduate loan is repaid alongside an undergraduate one rather than instead of it, so someone with both pays both.
Questions people actually ask
£21 an hour is how much a year?
£40,950 a year before tax, on a 37.5-hour week for 52 weeks. After income tax and National Insurance that is £33,003.60. On a 40-hour week it is £43,680 gross instead.
£21 an hour is how much a month?
£3,412.50 a month gross, or £2,750.30 after tax, on a 37.5-hour week.
£21 an hour is how much a week?
£787.50 gross for a 37.5-hour week — £634.68 after tax. Fortnightly that is £1,269.37.
Is £21 an hour a good wage?
That is a judgement this site will not make for you, but here is the arithmetic it needs: £40,950 a year gross, £33,003.60 in your hand, an effective tax and NI rate of 19.4%, and 28% taken from anything extra you earn. Your employer pays £46,342.50 for the role once employer National Insurance is counted.
What is an extra hour worth at £21?
£15.12 after tax and National Insurance, because your marginal rate at £40,950 is 28%. Ten extra hours is £151.20.
One PAYE job, standard tax code, 2026/27 rates, employment income only. What this does and does not model →