England & Wales · 2026/27
£31 an hour is £60,450 a year
On a 37.5-hour week, £31 an hour is £60,450 gross — and £45,618.40 after income tax and National Insurance, which is £3,801.53 a month.
- Take-home a year
- £45,618.40
- £3,801.53 a month · £877.28 a week
- Total deductions
- £14,831.60
- 24.5% of gross pay
- On your next £100
- 42%
- You keep £58.00 of the next £100
- Cost to employ you
- £68,767.50
- Includes £8,317.50 of employer NI absent from your payslip
- The wedge
- 33.7%
- Share of that cost that never reaches you
£31 an hour in context
On a 37.5-hour week £31 an hour is £60,450 a year, which is into the higher rate and carries a marginal rate of 42%. The practical consequence is overtime: an extra hour is worth £17.98 in your hand rather than the £31 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 £31 an hour is £32,240 at half time and £64,480 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 | £60,450 | £45,618.40 | £3,801.53 | £877.28 |
| 40 hours a 40-hour week | £64,480 | £47,955.80 | £3,996.32 | £922.23 |
| 35 hours a 35-hour week | £56,420 | £43,281 | £3,606.75 | £832.33 |
| 20 hours half time | £32,240 | £26,732.40 | £2,227.70 | £514.08 |
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.
£31 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 | £31 | £17.98 |
| A 4-hour shift | £124 | £71.92 |
| An 8-hour day | £248 | £143.84 |
| A 12-hour shift | £372 | £215.76 |
| A 37.5-hour week | £1,162.50 | £674.25 |
| A 5-day week at 8 hours | £1,240 | £719.20 |
The right-hand column applies this salary's marginal rate of 42%, which is what an EXTRA shift is worth once you are already earning £60,450. 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 £45,618.40 66.3%
- Your NI £3,219.60 4.7%
- Income tax £11,612 16.9%
- Employer NI £8,317.50 12.1%
£31 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 | £60,450 | £45,618.40 | — |
| Scotland | £60,450 | £43,859.35 | −£1,759.05 |
The arithmetic on £60,450
| Step | Applied to | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | — | — | £60,450 |
| Personal allowance | tax-free | 0% | −£12,570 |
| Taxable income | — | — | £47,880 |
| Basic rate | £37,700 of it | 20% | £7,540 |
| Higher rate | £10,180 of it | 40% | £4,072 |
| Income tax | — | — | £11,612 |
| National Insurance — main rate | £37,700 of it | 8% | £3,016 |
| National Insurance — above upper earnings limit | £10,180 of it | 2% | £203.60 |
| National Insurance | — | — | £3,219.60 |
| Take-home pay | — | — | £45,618.40 |
Adding the deductions gives £14,831.60, and £60,450 less that is the £45,618.40 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 £60,450 a year is close to
An hourly rate is only a salary once the hours are fixed, so everything below is measured against the £60,450 that £31 an hour comes to on a 37.5-hour week. Work different hours and the thresholds do not move — your position between them does.
Everything that changes near £60,450 is behind it. The most recent was the High Income Child Benefit Charge, at £60,000, which you passed £450 ago.
| What changes | At | From here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Income Child Benefit Charge | £60,000 | −£450 | passed |
| Higher rate | £50,271 | −£10,179 | passed |
| National Insurance upper earnings limit | £50,270 | −£10,180 | 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.
- £60,000 — A parent claiming Child Benefit is already £450 into the clawback, paying back 1% of it for every £200 over the threshold.
- £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.
- £50,270 — You are already past it, so your National Insurance is running at 2% rather than 8% on further pay — the higher rate above costs six points less than the raw band difference implies.
If your rate or hours changed
A swing of ten per cent either way from £60,450 does not cross a single band: the rate on further pay stays at 42% across the whole range from £54,405 to £66,495. 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% | £54,405 | £42,112.30 | −£3,506.10 | 42% |
| −5% | £57,428 | £43,865.64 | −£1,752.76 | 42% |
| +5% | £63,473 | £47,371.74 | +£1,753.34 | 42% |
| +10% | £66,495 | £49,124.50 | +£3,506.10 | 42% |
What a pension contribution buys at this rate
£60,450 is £450 above the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and that is the number a pension contribution is measured against here. Sacrificing exactly £450 takes your taxable pay back to £60,000, costs £261 in take-home, and puts £450 into your pension — 1.72 pounds saved for every pound of spending power given up. That ratio is the ordinary one for this band, which is itself the useful finding — there is no windfall here, just the normal trade. Employer National Insurance of 15% is saved on the sacrificed amount too, which some employers add to the pot and some keep.
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 £31.95 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 | £2,367 | £197.25 | 48% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £3,190.50 | £265.88 | 51% |
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £3,019.50 | £251.63 | 51% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £2,795.85 | £232.99 | 51% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | £2,398.95 | £199.91 | 51% |
A postgraduate loan is repaid alongside an undergraduate one rather than instead of it, so someone with both pays both.
Questions people actually ask
£31 an hour is how much a year?
£60,450 a year before tax, on a 37.5-hour week for 52 weeks. After income tax and National Insurance that is £45,618.40. On a 40-hour week it is £64,480 gross instead.
£31 an hour is how much a month?
£5,037.50 a month gross, or £3,801.53 after tax, on a 37.5-hour week.
£31 an hour is how much a week?
£1,162.50 gross for a 37.5-hour week — £877.28 after tax. Fortnightly that is £1,754.55.
Is £31 an hour a good wage?
That is a judgement this site will not make for you, but here is the arithmetic it needs: £60,450 a year gross, £45,618.40 in your hand, an effective tax and NI rate of 24.5%, and 42% taken from anything extra you earn. Your employer pays £68,767.50 for the role once employer National Insurance is counted.
What is an extra hour worth at £31?
£17.98 after tax and National Insurance, because your marginal rate at £60,450 is 42%. Ten extra hours is £179.80.
One PAYE job, standard tax code, 2026/27 rates, employment income only. What this does and does not model →