✨ Verified 2026/27 Tax Thresholds · Audited across 22 Official Government Revenue Databases
£15 an hour on a standard 40-hour week is £31,200 a year — £25,984 after tax, or £2,165 a month. Put another way: of every £15 you earn, you keep about £12.49. Hourly pay hides annual reality in both directions, so this page translates it properly — including what overtime at this rate is really worth.
| Period | Gross | After tax & NI |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | £15.00 | £12.49 |
| Weekly (40h) | £600 | £500 |
| Monthly | £2,600 | £2,165 |
| Yearly | £31,200 | £25,984 |
Assumes 40 hours a week, 52 weeks, standard Personal Allowance, no pension, student loan, or overtime. Income tax takes £3,726 a year and National Insurance £1,490 — a 16.7% effective rate. On a 37.5-hour contract the annual gross is £29,250 instead.
It's meaningfully above the National Living Wage — roughly £3 an hour clear of the legal floor — and right in the territory of experienced warehouse and logistics staff, healthcare assistants with enhancements, security supervisors, and entry-level trades. Annualised, £31,200 lands a little below the UK's median full-time salary, which is precisely why "£15 an hour" sounds better than "£31,200 a year" to most ears: hourly framing flatters modest wages.
The most useful mental conversion runs the other way. Any hourly offer × 2 ≈ annual salary in thousands (at 40 hours): £15 → ~£31k, £20 → ~£42k. It's approximate, but it stops recruiters' hourly framing doing your thinking for you.
At this wage every extra pound is taxed at the basic rate plus NI — 28% combined. So an overtime hour at plain £15 puts £10.80 in your pocket; at time-and-a-half (£22.50) it's £16.20. Worth knowing before agreeing to Sunday shifts: the taxman's share doesn't jump just because it's overtime (a persistent payslip myth — the extra tax you see is just more income taxed at your normal rate), but it doesn't shrink either.
If overtime is regular, watch the student loan line too: Plan 2 repayments (9% above £27,295) switch on part-way through this salary — about £29 a month at £31,200, rising with every extra shift.
Outside the south-east, £2,165 a month is a workable single wage: a £600–£750 room-or-flat, a modest car, and a little left over. In London it means flat-sharing, full stop. As a household's second income it's genuinely useful money almost anywhere.
Neighbouring rungs: £30,000 after tax · £3,000 a month after tax · or test any figure on the UK salary calculator.
On a 40-hour week, £15 an hour is £31,200 gross — £25,984 after tax and National Insurance, or £2,165 a month. On a 37.5-hour week it's £29,250 gross, roughly £24,580 net.
£600 gross per 40-hour week becomes about £500 in your account — the deductions work out to £100 a week at this level.
It's roughly £3 above the National Living Wage and annualises to a bit under the median full-time salary — a solid hourly wage for non-graduate roles, liveable everywhere outside London for a single person, and best judged in annual terms: ~£31,200.
About £17.80 an hour on a 40-hour week — £37,000 a year gross, which nets £2,513 a month at 2026/27 rates.
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