£12 an hour is how much a year?
A year before tax
£23,400
At £12 an hour for 37.5 hours a week, you earn £23,400 a year before tax, or £1,950 a month.
Paid £12 an hour for a standard full-time week of 37.5 hours, you earn £23,400 a year before tax. That is £1,950 a month or £450 a week. After income tax and National Insurance, someone in England keeps £20,369.40 of it.
| Hours a week | A week | A month | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | £240.00 | £1,040.00 | £12,480.00 |
| 35 | £420.00 | £1,820.00 | £21,840.00 |
| 37.5 | £450.00 | £1,950.00 | £23,400.00 |
| 40 | £480.00 | £2,080.00 | £24,960.00 |
| England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| A year | £20,369.40 | £20,409.07 |
| A month | £1,697.45 | £1,700.76 |
| A week | £391.72 | £392.48 |
Who can be paid £12 an hour
Since April 2026 the legal minimum for workers aged twenty-one and over is the National Living Wage, which is higher than £12. So an hourly rate of £12 is now lawful only for younger workers and apprentices, whose minimum rates are lower. The National Living Wage page shows what the adult minimum comes to over a year.
For a worker aged eighteen to twenty, £12 is above their legal minimum. The yearly figure of £23,400 assumes you are paid for every week of the year, including weeks of paid holiday.
Part time at £12: no tax and no National Insurance
Twenty hours a week at £12 comes to £12,480 a year. That sits just under the personal allowance of £12,570, so no income tax is due. It is also under the National Insurance threshold of £12,570, so on 20 hours a week at this rate you keep every penny you earn.
On a full-time salary of £23,400, income tax takes £2,164.20 and National Insurance takes £866.40. All of the taxed pay falls in the basic rate band at 20%. For other part-time patterns, the pro rata calculator scales a full-time salary to your hours.
Longer weeks and Scotland
A 40 hours contract at £12 pays £24,960 a year, and take-home rises from £20,369.40 to £21,492.60. The extra half hour each day is taxed at the basic rate plus National Insurance at 8%.
A Scottish taxpayer on £12 for 37.5 hours keeps £20,409.07, a little more than in England. The Scottish starter rate of 19% covers the first slice of taxed pay, and at this income that saving is not yet cancelled out by the Scottish intermediate rate. The nearest yearly figure has its own salary after tax page.
Questions
What is £12 an hour a month?
Before tax it is £1,950 a month on a 37.5 hours week. After income tax and National Insurance in England the monthly figure is £1,697.45, with no pension or student loan taken off.
Is £12 an hour above the minimum wage?
It depends on age. It is above the legal minimum for workers under twenty-one and for apprentices, but below the National Living Wage that applies to workers aged twenty-one and over from April 2026.
Do I pay tax on £12 an hour part time?
On 20 hours a week the yearly pay of £12,480 is below the personal allowance of £12,570, so there is no income tax and no employee National Insurance to pay, as long as this is your only job.