England & Wales · 2026/27
£31,000 after tax
A salary of £31,000 in England, Wales & Northern Ireland leaves £25,839.60 a year — £2,153.30 a month. The next £100 you earn is taxed at 28%.
- Take-home a year
- £25,839.60
- £2,153.30 a month · £496.92 a week
- Total deductions
- £5,160.40
- 16.6% of gross pay
- On your next £100
- 28%
- You keep £72 of the next £100
- Cost to employ you
- £34,900
- Includes £3,900 of employer NI absent from your payslip
- The wedge
- 26%
- Share of that cost that never reaches you
What matters at £31,000
This salary sits in the basic rate, and the single most useful number on the page is the 28% marginal rate — 37% if you are repaying a Plan 2 student loan, which starts at £29,385 and so is already running here.
The next thing that changes is the higher rate at £50,271, which is £19,271 above this salary. Crossing it does not change the tax on anything you already earn, only on the pounds above it.
A workplace pension is worth more than it looks here for a reason that has nothing to do with the pension itself: relief comes at your marginal rate, so every £100 contributed costs you £72 of take-home rather than £100.
Where the money actually goes
Your payslip shows £31,000 going in and £25,839.60 coming out. It does not show the £3,900 your employer pays in National Insurance on top — money spent to employ you that you never see. Counting it, the job costs £34,900 and 26% of that never reaches you.
- Take-home £25,839.60 74.0%
- Your NI £1,474.40 4.2%
- Income tax £3,686 10.6%
- Employer NI £3,900 11.2%
The arithmetic, step by step
| Step | Applied to | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | — | — | £31,000 |
| Personal allowance | tax-free | 0% | −£12,570 |
| Taxable income | — | — | £18,430 |
| Basic rate | £18,430 of it | 20% | £3,686 |
| Income tax | — | — | £3,686 |
| National Insurance — main rate | £18,430 of it | 8% | £1,474.40 |
| National Insurance | — | — | £1,474.40 |
| Take-home pay | — | — | £25,839.60 |
Adding the deductions gives £5,160.40, and £31,000 less that is the £25,839.60 take-home above. National Insurance is charged per pay period rather than annually, so a month containing a bonus can pay more than this.
£31,000 a month, a week, an hour
| Period | Gross | Deductions | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| A year | £31,000 | £5,160.40 | £25,839.60 |
| A month | £2,583.33 | £430.03 | £2,153.30 |
| Four-weekly | £2,384.62 | £396.95 | £1,987.66 |
| Fortnightly | £1,192.31 | £198.48 | £993.83 |
| A week | £596.15 | £99.24 | £496.92 |
| An hour (37.5h week) | £15.90 | £2.65 | £13.25 |
A four-weekly payroll pays £1,987.66 thirteen times a year rather than £2,153.30 twelve times — the same annual total, arriving in smaller and more frequent amounts. Hourly assumes 37.5 paid hours a week for 52 weeks.
The rate on your next £100
At £31,000 the rate on further pay is 28%, so the next £100 you earn is worth £72 in your hand and £28 to the Exchequer. An hour of overtime at the implied rate of £15.90 is worth £11.45. Those are the figures a take-home total cannot give you, and they are what a rise, a bonus or a pension contribution is actually priced at.
A £1,000 rise on this salary is worth £720 in your hand — 72.0% of it — or £60 a month. It costs your employer £1,150.
What is close to £31,000
£31,000 sits between two things that matter. £1,615 below you is the Plan 2 repayment threshold, and £2,795 above you is the Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold — so this salary is already past one change and approaching another.
| What changes | At | From here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 repayment threshold | £29,385 | −£1,615 | passed |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold | £33,795 | +£2,795 | ahead |
| Plan 1 repayment threshold | £26,900 | −£4,100 | passed |
| Plan 5 repayment threshold | £25,000 | −£6,000 | passed |
| Postgraduate Loan repayment threshold | £21,000 | −£10,000 | 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.
- £29,385 — Plan 2 takes 9% of the £1,615 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £33,795 — Plan 4 (Scotland) has not started. A borrower pays nothing until £2,795 more, and then 9% of the excess.
- £26,900 — Plan 1 takes 9% of the £4,100 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £25,000 — Plan 5 takes 9% of the £6,000 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £21,000 — Postgraduate Loan takes 6% of the £10,000 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
If your pay moved
A swing of ten per cent either way from £31,000 does not cross a single band: the rate on further pay stays at 28% across the whole range from £27,900 to £34,100. 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% | £27,900 | £23,607.60 | −£2,232 | 28% |
| −5% | £29,450 | £24,723.60 | −£1,116 | 28% |
| +5% | £32,550 | £26,955.60 | +£1,116 | 28% |
| +10% | £34,100 | £28,071.60 | +£2,232 | 28% |
What a pension contribution buys here
There is no threshold within reach below £31,000, so a pension contribution here is not about ducking under anything — it is simply the ordinary trade. Sacrificing £1,500 costs you £1,080 in take-home, because 28% of it was never going to reach you anyway, and puts the full £1,500 into the pot. That is £1,500 of saving for £1,080 of spending power — a ratio of 1.39 to one, and it is the same ratio for every pound until the next band.
With a student loan
A Plan 2 loan takes 9% of everything above £29,385 — which at £31,000 means £145.35 a year, or £12.11 a month. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day, so it belongs in the rate you use to decide anything: it moves your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
| No loan | Plan 2 loan | |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home a year | £25,839.60 | £25,694.25 |
| Take-home a month | £2,153.30 | £2,141.19 |
| Repayment a year | — | £145.35 |
| Rate on your next £100 | 28% | 37% |
Which plan, and what each one takes
4 of the five repayment thresholds are behind £31,000 and 1 is still ahead — Plan 4 (Scotland) at £33,795. Which plan you are on is not a choice, and the difference between them at this salary is £454.65 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 | £600 | £50 | 34% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £540 | £45 | 37% |
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £369 | £30.75 | 37% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £145.35 | £12.11 | 37% |
A postgraduate loan is repaid alongside an undergraduate one rather than instead of it, so someone with both pays both.
£31,000 elsewhere in the UK
Income tax is devolved to Scotland; National Insurance is not. At £31,000 the two regimes differ by £24.93 a year in take-home and 1 percentage points at the margin — and neither gap is constant, because the two sets of bands cross each other rather than running parallel.
| Where you live | Income tax | Take-home | Difference | Next £100 taxed at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | £3,686 | £25,839.60 | — | 28% |
| Scotland | £3,661.07 | £25,864.53 | +£24.93 | 29% |
National Insurance is identical everywhere in the UK, so the whole difference is income tax.
Questions people actually ask
How much is £31,000 a year after tax?
£25,839.60 a year — £2,153.30 a month. That is after £3,686 of income tax and £1,474.40 of National Insurance on the 2026/27 rates for England, Wales & Northern Ireland.
How much is £31,000 a month after tax?
£2,153.30 if you are paid monthly. A four-weekly payroll pays £1,987.66 thirteen times a year instead, and a fortnightly one pays £993.83.
What is the tax rate on £31,000?
Two different numbers, and confusing them is the usual mistake. Your effective rate — total tax and NI over gross pay — is 16.6%. Your marginal rate, on the next £100 you earn, is 28%. The marginal one is what decides whether a rise or a pension contribution is worth it.
What does £31,000 cost my employer?
£34,900. On top of your salary they pay £3,900 of employer National Insurance, which never appears on your payslip. Of that total, 26% goes in tax and National Insurance rather than to you.
How much is £31,000 after tax with a student loan?
£25,694.25 on Plan 2 — £145.35 a year less. Repayment is 9% of everything above £29,385, and it pushes the rate on your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
How far is £31,000 from the higher rate?
£19,271. The higher rate starts at £50,271 in England & Wales, and only the income above that point is taxed at the higher rate — the pounds below it are unaffected.
What is £31,000 after tax with a student loan?
£25,694.25 on Plan 2 — £145.35 a year in repayments, which takes the rate on your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
One PAYE job, standard tax code, 2026/27 rates, employment income only. What this does and does not model →