£30 an hour is how much a year?
£30 an hour is £58,500 a year at a full-time 37.5-hour week, £4,875.00 a month before tax, and about £3,707.28 a month in your pocket after income tax and National Insurance. These figures use the 2026/27 UK tax year's HMRC rates (checked 28 August 2026), England, Wales and Northern Ireland bands, the standard 1257L tax code, 52 paid weeks (employees are paid for holiday), and no pension or student loan, a different tax code, Scottish bands or a loan plan changes the take-home, and the full hourly calculator handles all of those. The table below shows the same £30 rate across 20, 30, 37.5 and 40-hour weeks, gross and after tax.
How much is £30 an hour annually? At 37.5 hours a week it is £58,500 a year before tax and £44,487 after it. By the shift rather than the week: £30 an hour is £240.00 for an eight-hour day before deductions, £360.00 for a twelve-hour shift, and £120.00 for a half day. Those are gross figures and no single shift is taxed on its own, because PAYE works on the pay in the whole pay period against a slice of your allowance, so the take-home share in the table is what reaches you.
£30/hour by working week
| Hours/week | Annual gross | Monthly gross | Take-home / year | Take-home / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | £31,200.00 | £2,600.00 | £25,983.60 | £2,165.30 |
| 30 | £46,800.00 | £3,900.00 | £37,215.60 | £3,101.30 |
| 37.5 | £58,500.00 | £4,875.00 | £44,487.40 | £3,707.28 |
| 40 | £62,400.00 | £5,200.00 | £46,749.40 | £3,895.78 |
52 paid weeks (holiday is paid for employees), England bands, standard 1257L code, no pension or student loan. At 37.5 hours you keep 76.0% of gross, each hour is worth £22.81 after tax against the £30 headline.
Where £30 an hour sits in the tax system
£58,500 has just crossed into the higher rate. Only the £8,230 above £50,270 is taxed at 40%; the rest is still at 20%, which is why the overall share kept is 76% and not 60%. National Insurance drops to 2% above the same point, so the marginal rate on the next pound is 42%. The next threshold is where the Child Benefit charge starts, at £60,000: £1,500 away.
In hourly terms, that next threshold is £0.77 an hour away at 37.5 hours: a rise to £30.77 an hour is where the Child Benefit charge starts.
After tax, an hour at £30 is worth £22.81, so clearing £1,000 takes 44 hours of work. The annual supports rent of about £1,950 a month on a letting agent's 30× gross test, against £1,112 at 30% of take-home, the figure a budget can live on; the rent affordability calculator shows both.
What is an extra hour worth at £30?
Overtime is not taxed at a special rate: an extra hour is ordinary pay stacked on top of what you already earn, so it is taxed at your marginal rate. At £58,500 that rate is 42%, so a plain extra hour at £30 leaves £17.40, and an hour paid at time-and-a-half leaves £26.10. Work it out for your own hours on the overtime calculator.
How £30 compares with the legal minimum
£30 is £17.29 an hour above the £12.71 National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over. Over a 37.5-hour week that is £648.38 a week more, or £33,716 a year before tax. Check your own age band on the minimum wage calculator, which also tests your actual weekly pay against the rate you are owed.
Questions people ask about £30 an hour
Why is my marginal rate 42% on £58,500?
Above £50,270 income tax is 40% and National Insurance falls to 2%, so each extra pound loses 42%. Only £8,230 of £58,500 is in this band.
Is £58,500 affected by the Child Benefit charge?
Not yet. The charge starts at £60,000, £1,500 above this salary.
Does a pension contribution help at £58,500?
Yes, more than at a basic-rate salary: contributions from the 40% slice get 40% relief. Sacrificing £8,230 would take you back to the basic rate entirely.
Nearby hourly rates
Any other rate, plus pension and student loan: hourly wage calculator · full deductions on the main calculator.
2026/27 HMRC rates, checked 28 August 2026 by Hadi.