What salary gives you £15,000 take-home a year?
To take home about £15,000 a year in England after income tax and National Insurance (no student loan, no pension, 2026-27), you need a gross salary of £15,945 (£1,329 a month).
Required gross salary
£15,945
a year
bottom 10%
Required gross (monthly)
£1,329
≈ annual ÷ 12
Take-home delivered
£15,000
a year, after tax and NI
Monthly take-home
£1,250
≈ annual ÷ 12
You keep
94.1%
of the gross figure
Effective income tax rate
4.2%
across the whole salary
| Gross salary needed | £15,945 |
| Income tax | −£675 |
| National Insurance | −£270 |
| Take-home pay | £15,000 |
Effective income tax rate 4.2%. A gross salary of £15,945 sits near the bottom 10% of UK full-time earners (ONS ASHE 2025).
What this means at £15,000 take-home
A gross salary of £15,945 sits inside the basic-rate band, taxed at 20% above the personal allowance, with 8% employee National Insurance on earnings above the primary threshold. The effective income tax rate on the whole salary is 4.2%.
Of the £15,945 gross salary, around 94.1% reaches you after income tax and National Insurance, and the marginal deduction rate on a pay rise at this level is 28.0% (income tax 20.0% plus employee National Insurance). You can read more about the band your salary falls in on our income tax guide and explore the £100k–£125k tax trap if your target lands in the taper zone.
How the £15,000 figure is calculated
The required salary is found by running the full PAYE maths in reverse: for a given target take-home, the engine searches for the lowest whole-pound gross salary whose net pay is at least that figure, using the 2026-27 income tax bands and National Insurance thresholds for England.
The baseline shown here is deliberately simple: England, no student loan, no pension. Your real answer varies with tax code, pension contributions, student loan repayments and region; use the required salary calculator to add those details and get an exact figure.