£15 an hour after tax in the UK
£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.
£15/hour, translated to every pay period
| 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.
Where £15 an hour sits in the UK wage landscape
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.
What an hour of overtime is actually worth
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.
Can you live on £15 an hour?
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.
Frequently asked questions
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.