A £30,000 salary sounds clear until you try to compare it with an hourly job, a contract, or a freelance rate. This guide gives you the gross and after-tax hourly figures for the UK in 2026/27, shows the tax arithmetic behind them, and explains why your contracted hours change the answer more than anything else.
Search intent: you want to know what £30,000 a year is worth per hour in the UK, before and after tax, so you can compare jobs or set a rate. The headline answer is in the first section below, with the full breakdown, hours table and worked example after it.
How much is thirty thousand pounds a year per hour in the UK?
On a standard 37.5 hour week, £30,000 a year is £15.38 an hour before tax, and £12.88 an hour after income tax and employee National Insurance in 2026/27. On a 40 hour week it is £14.42 an hour gross and £12.08 an hour net.
Those four figures are the ones most pages get half right. Template calculators usually show the gross rate only, or quote a net rate with no tax year, no hours basis and no workings. Here both rates carry their basis: 37.5 hours a week is 1,950 paid hours a year, and 40 hours a week is 2,080 paid hours a year. Change the hours and the hourly rate moves, even though the salary does not.
Rates last reviewed: October 2026. Income tax bands are from GOV.UK Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, and employee National Insurance rates are from GOV.UK rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. Assumptions throughout: England, Wales or Northern Ireland, standard tax code, no pension contributions, no student loan, no other income.
| Hours basis | Paid hours a year | Gross per hour | After tax per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 hours a week | 1,820 | £16.48 | £13.80 |
| 37.5 hours a week | 1,950 | £15.38 | £12.88 |
| 40 hours a week | 2,080 | £14.42 | £12.08 |
Scotland has different income tax bands, so the after-tax figures differ there. If your main home is in Scotland, read our guide to self-employed tax in Scotland for how the Scottish bands work, and note that employee National Insurance is the same UK-wide.
How do you work out the hourly rate from a salary?
Divide your gross annual salary by the hours you are paid for in a year, which is your weekly hours multiplied by 52. For £30,000 that is 30,000 divided by 1,950 hours on a 37.5 hour week, giving £15.38, or divided by 2,080 on a 40 hour week.
Hourly rate = annual salary divided by (weekly hours x 52 weeks)
The formula is simple. The mistakes sit in the inputs. First, always start from gross salary, the figure in your contract, not the amount that lands in your bank account. Second, use your own contracted hours. A surprising number of UK staff are on 37 or 36.5 hour contracts, not 37.5, and using the wrong weekly figure shifts the result by 30p to 50p an hour. Third, keep gross with gross and net with net when you compare. A gross hourly job offer compared against a net salary rate will always look better than it is.
You can run your own hours and salary through LancerBill’s hourly rate calculator instead of doing the division by hand, and use LancerBill’s rate converter to flip the same salary into weekly and monthly figures. Our general guide to converting salary to hourly pay the right way covers other countries and schedules in more depth.
Tip: Check your contract, not your rota. If your contract says 37.5 hours but you regularly stay late, your contracted rate is still based on 37.5 hours. The overtime effect is real, but it belongs in the separate worked-hours calculation further down this page.
Worked example: the tax on a thirty thousand pound salary in 2026/27
Here is the full arithmetic behind the £12.88 net hourly figure, so you can check every line against your own payslip. Salary: £30,000. Tax year: 2026/27.
Step 1: Income tax. The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, so you pay no tax on the first £12,570. The rest, £30,000 minus £12,570, is £17,430. All of it sits inside the basic rate band, which runs to £50,270 at 20 percent, per GOV.UK. Tax is £17,430 x 0.20 = £3,486.00.
Step 2: Employee National Insurance. This is Class 1, the employee class, charged at 8 percent on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, per GOV.UK. The slice is the same £17,430. National Insurance is £17,430 x 0.08 = £1,394.40. Note the rate: employees pay 8 percent, not the 6 percent Class 4 rate that sole traders pay. Mixing those two rates is the most common error in take-home articles.
Step 3: Take-home pay. £30,000 minus £3,486.00 minus £1,394.40 = £25,119.60 a year. That is £2,093.30 a month and £483.07 a week.
Step 4: Net hourly rate. On a 37.5 hour week: £25,119.60 divided by 1,950 = £12.88 an hour. On a 40 hour week: £25,119.60 divided by 2,080 = £12.08 an hour.
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £30,000.00 | |
| Income tax at 20 percent | £17,430 x 0.20 | £3,486.00 |
| Employee National Insurance at 8 percent | £17,430 x 0.08 | £1,394.40 |
| Total deductions | £3,486.00 + £1,394.40 | £4,880.40 |
| Take-home pay | £30,000 – £4,880.40 | £25,119.60 |
If you want the same walk for a different salary, LancerBill’s UK income tax calculator runs the bands and the Class 1 calculation for you. Compare its output line by line with the table above before you rely on any other calculator, because several ranking pages quote a net hourly rate near £12.50 for this salary with no workings, and that figure does not match the 2026/27 bands.
What changes the hourly rate besides the salary itself?
Three things change the answer without changing the salary: your contracted weekly hours, whether you count only hours worked after holiday, and any regular unpaid overtime. The same salary is £17.24 per worked hour after holiday, but only £12.82 gross at 45 hours a week.
Holiday. You are paid for 52 weeks, but you do not work all of them. UK staff get at least 28 days of paid leave including bank holidays. At 7.5 hours a day on a 37.5 hour contract, that is 210 hours, leaving 1,740 hours actually worked. Your gross pay per worked hour is £30,000 divided by 1,740 = £17.24, and the net version is £25,119.60 divided by 1,740 = £14.44. This worked-hours rate is the honest one to use if you are pricing freelance work to replace the job, because as a freelancer nobody pays you for holidays.
Unpaid overtime. Work a regular 45 hour week on the same salary and your paid hours rise to 2,340 a year. The gross rate falls to £30,000 divided by 2,340 = £12.82, and the net rate to £10.73. Nothing on your payslip changes, which is exactly why this calculation is worth doing once a year.
| Scenario | Hours counted | Gross per hour | Net per hour | Use this figure when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contracted, 37.5h week | 1,950 | £15.38 | £12.88 | Comparing two salaried jobs |
| Worked hours after 28 days leave | 1,740 | £17.24 | £14.44 | Setting a freelance rate to replace the job |
| Regular 45h week with unpaid overtime | 2,340 | £12.82 | £10.73 | Judging whether the job still pays fairly |
No competitor table we checked puts all three views side by side with the net column included. Most show contracted gross only, which flatters the salary in a job comparison and underprices you badly in a freelance comparison.
Watch out: Pension contributions are not in these figures. If you pay 5 percent into a workplace pension, your take-home falls by roughly £1,500 a year before tax relief effects, and your net hourly rate drops by about 77p on a 37.5 hour week. Add your own pension percentage into the calculator rather than using the headline net rate.
How does an employee on thirty thousand pounds compare with a sole trader?
An employee on £30,000 takes home £25,119.60 in 2026/27 after Class 1 National Insurance at 8 percent. A sole trader with £30,000 of profit takes home £25,468.20, because Class 4 National Insurance is 6 percent. The income tax is identical, the National Insurance class creates the gap.
The gap is £348.60 a year. It comes from one line only: £17,430 x 2 percent, the difference between the 8 percent employee rate and the 6 percent self-employed rate on the same slice of income. Our step-by-step guide to how to calculate your self-employed tax shows the Class 4 version of this walk in full.
Do not read that gap as free money. The employee also gets paid holiday, sick pay, and usually an employer pension contribution on top of salary. The sole trader funds all three from the same £30,000, files Self Assessment, and may face payments on account. On a pure hourly basis the sole trader needs to charge well above £12.88 net just to stand still, which is why our guide to freelance hourly rate versus salary warns against treating a salary equivalent as a freelance rate.
If you are weighing up going self-employed on similar money, run both sides properly: the employee side with the UK income tax calculator and the sole trader side with LancerBill’s Self-Employed Tax Calculator UK, then compare the two take-home figures, not the two gross figures.
Should you compare offers against the gross or net hourly rate?
Use gross when you compare two salaried jobs on the same terms, because both carry the same tax treatment. Use net, and then the holiday adjusted net rate, when you compare a salary with freelance or contract work, because you will fund leave, pension and gaps between jobs yourself.
A simple decision framework:
- Salaried job versus salaried job: compare gross hourly on contracted hours. £15.38 on a 37.5 hour contract beats £15.38 on a 40 hour contract in real terms only if the hours differ, so compare the rate, not just the salary.
- Salaried job versus hourly contract: compare net hourly first, then check what the contract excludes. No paid leave on the contract side means its rate needs to beat £14.44, the holiday adjusted net figure, not £12.88.
- Salary versus going freelance: start from £17.24 gross per worked hour, then add a margin for pension, insurance, admin time and gaps between clients. Pricing at the salary equivalent is the classic route to earning less than you did as an employee.
When you are ready to build a freelance rate from this salary, LancerBill’s freelance rate calculator takes your target income, billable hours and costs and works the rate out properly, rather than copying the employee figure across.
Rule of thumb: never quote one hourly figure for a £30,000 salary without naming its basis. Gross or net, contracted or worked hours: the basis is the answer.
Key takeaways
- £30,000 a year is £15.38 an hour gross and £12.88 an hour after tax on a 37.5 hour week in the UK for 2026/27.
- On a 40 hour week the same salary is £14.42 gross and £12.08 net an hour. The hours basis changes the answer, so always state it.
- Income tax is £3,486.00 and employee Class 1 National Insurance at 8 percent is £1,394.40, leaving take-home pay of £25,119.60.
- Per hour actually worked after 28 days of leave, the rate rises to £17.24 gross and £14.44 net. That is the figure to price freelance work from.
- A sole trader on £30,000 of profit keeps £348.60 more because Class 4 National Insurance is 6 percent, but funds holiday, sick pay and pension alone.
You can also compare the top of this range in the £50,000 a year per hour guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much is £30,000 a year per hour in the UK after tax?
£12.88 an hour on a 37.5 hour week, or £12.08 an hour on a 40 hour week, for 2026/27 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That is take-home pay of £25,119.60, after income tax of £3,486.00 and employee National Insurance of £1,394.40, divided by your paid hours.
How much is £30,000 a year per month and per week?
Gross, it is £2,500 a month and £576.92 a week. After income tax and employee National Insurance in 2026/27, take-home is £2,093.30 a month and £483.07 a week, assuming a standard tax code with no pension or student loan deductions.
Why do different calculators give different hourly rates for £30,000?
Because they divide by different hours. A 37.5 hour week gives 1,950 hours a year and £15.38 gross, a 40 hour week gives 2,080 hours and £14.42, and calculators that remove holiday give a higher worked-hours rate. Some also use old tax years or quote a net rate with no workings. Always check the hours basis and tax year.
Is £30,000 a year a good salary in the UK?
It depends on your hours, costs and location, and this guide does not rank salaries. What the numbers show is that £30,000 is £15.38 an hour gross on a standard contract, and £17.24 for each hour you actually work after leave. Judge an offer against those rates and against the cost of the hours you give up, not against the headline salary alone.
How much would a freelancer need to charge to match a £30,000 salary?
More than the £17.24 gross per worked hour. A freelancer has no paid leave, no employer pension and unpaid admin and marketing time, so the chargeable rate must cover those on top of the salary equivalent. Use a freelance rate calculator with your real billable hours and costs to set the figure, rather than copying the employee hourly rate.
Do the figures change if I live in Scotland?
Yes, for income tax only. Scotland sets its own income tax bands, so the tax on £30,000 and the net hourly rate differ from the England, Wales and Northern Ireland figures in this guide. Employee National Insurance is UK-wide and stays at 8 percent between £12,570 and £50,270.
This guide is for general information only and is not financial, tax or legal advice.