Pay rise calculator
A pay rise is taxed entirely at your marginal rate, so what reaches your pocket is always less than the headline, 72% of it for a basic-rate taxpayer, 58% at higher rate, under 40% inside the £100k taper. Enter both salaries and see the honest number.
A £3,000 rise (8.6%) puts in your pocket
£2,160.00 a year
£180.00 a month, you keep 72% of the rise. Take-home goes from £28,720 to £30,880.
2026/27 rates. Assumes the standard 1257L code, no pension or student loan, a student loan takes a further 9% of the rise.
Can a pay rise leave you worse off?
Through income tax alone, never, bands only tax the pounds above each line, so more gross always means more net. The genuine exceptions are cliff-edge benefits: crossing £100,000 of adjusted net income forfeits free childcare and Tax-Free Childcare in full, and crossing £60,000 starts the Child Benefit clawback. For parents near those lines, a salary sacrifice of the excess turns a losing rise back into a winning one. When negotiating, remember the conversion runs both ways: employers talk in gross while your budget runs on net, and because the whole rise is taxed at the top of your income, the gross figure you need to ask for is usually larger than instinct suggests, the reverse tax calculator starts from the take-home you want and hands you that number.
2026/27 rates, checked 2026-08-28. Method on the about page.