£20,000 After Tax: Take-Home Pay in 2026/27

On a £20,000 salary you take home £17,920 a year in 2026/27 — £1,493.30 a month or £344.61 a week — after £1,486 income tax and £594 National Insurance. That assumes tax code 1257L, England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and no pension or student loan; the tables below add each of those.

Updated 2026-10-03 · HMRC 2026/27 rates and thresholds

£20,000 take-home pay by period

How the tax on £20,000 is calculated

£20,000 sits entirely in the basic-rate band: everything above £12,570 is taxed at 20% and NI is 8%, so each extra pound you earn is taxed at 28%. You can earn another £30,270 before reaching the 40% higher rate.

£20,000 after tax in Scotland

Scottish taxpayers pay Scottish income tax rates on earnings. On £20,000 that is £1,446 of income tax compared with £1,486 elsewhere in the UK, so take-home pay is £1,496.61 a month (£3.31 more than in England).

£20,000 after tax with a student loan

Student loans are repaid at 9% of earnings above each plan's threshold (6% for postgraduate loans).

£20,000 after tax with a pension

Auto-enrolment requires at least 5% from you and 3% from your employer on qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270) — for you that is £688 and £413 a year. Salary sacrifice also saves National Insurance, so it costs less in take-home pay than relief at source.

£20,000 after tax: 2025/26 vs 2026/27

With income tax thresholds frozen, the same salary pays the same tax and NI this year. A pay rise that only matches inflation therefore leaves you slightly worse off in real terms.

£20,000 after tax on different tax codes

Your tax code tells your employer how much tax-free pay to give you. A wrong code is the most common reason a payslip differs from the figures above — check yours on your payslip or in the HMRC app.

A typical £20,000 monthly payslip

With a 5% workplace pension (relief at source) and a Plan 2 student loan, the most common setup for graduates in England:

Bonus on £20,000: how much you keep

£20,000 pro rata: part-time take-home

Part-time jobs are often advertised at the full-time equivalent (FTE) salary. Because the Personal Allowance is not pro-rated, working fewer days lowers your tax by more than your pay.

What your tax band means on £20,000

• Savings: as a basic-rate taxpayer your Personal Savings Allowance is £1,000 of interest a year. ISAs stay tax-free whatever you earn.
• Dividends above the £500 allowance are taxed at 10.75% at your band.
• Capital gains above the £3,000 exemption are taxed at 18% up to your unused basic-rate band (£30,270) and 24% above it.
• Pension tax relief: 20% relief is added automatically — a £1,000 pension contribution costs you £800 (or less through salary sacrifice).
• Marriage Allowance: if your partner earns under £12,570 they can transfer £1,260 of allowance to you, cutting your tax by up to £252 a year.
• Child Benefit: you keep it all — the High Income Child Benefit Charge only starts at £60,000.
• Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours: available while each parent’s adjusted net income stays at or below £100,000.

What £20,000 costs your employer

Your employer pays 15% National Insurance on earnings above £5,000 — £2,250 a year on £20,000 — plus at least 3% auto-enrolment pension (£413). The total cost of employing you is about £22,663, of which you take home 79%. A salary-sacrifice pension also cuts the employer's NI bill.

How £20,000 compares

• UK earnings: the median full-time salary is £39,039 (April 2025, ONS). £20,000 is £19,039 below it.
• Hourly rate: £10.26 on a 37.5-hour week (£9.62 on 40 hours) — 0.81× the National Living Wage of £12.71.
• A £1,000 pay rise to £21,000 adds £720 a year, or £60.00 a month.
• Effective tax rate: 10.4% of your salary goes on income tax and NI, while your top rate on extra earnings is 28%.

Nearby salaries: £22,000 after tax (£1,613.30/month). Every salary from £15,000 to £200,000 is in the salary after tax table.