£15,000 after tax
Take-home pay
£14,321.40
On a salary of £15,000 (15k) you take home £14,321.40 a year in the 2026/27 tax year. That is £1,193.45 a month or £275.41 a week.
On £15,000 a year you take home £14,321.40, which is £1,193.45 a month. Only £2,421 of the salary sits above the personal allowance, so the income tax and National Insurance bills are both small, and no student loan of any kind takes a repayment at this level.
| England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| A year | £14,321.40 | £14,345.61 |
| A month | £1,193.45 | £1,195.47 |
| A week | £275.41 | £275.88 |
| A working day | £55.08 | £55.18 |
| An hour (37.5 hours a week) | £7.34 | £7.36 |
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Salary | £15,000 |
| Income tax | £484.20 |
| National Insurance | £194.40 |
| Take-home pay | £14,321.40 |
How this was worked out
- Salary: £15,000
- Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
- Taxable income: £15,000 − £12,579 = £2,421
- Basic rate: £2,421 × 20% = £484.20
- Income tax: £484.20
- National Insurance: (£15,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £194.40
- Take-home pay: £15,000 − £484.20 − £194.40 = £14,321.40
The small taxable slice
The personal allowance covers the first £12,570 of pay. The rest, £2,421, is taxed at the basic rate of 20%, for a bill of £484.20 across the year.
Employee National Insurance starts at the same point, £12,570, and charges 8% on that slice. That adds £194.40, and the two deductions together take less than five per cent of £15,000.
Each extra pound earned above this level loses 28% to tax and National Insurance outside Scotland. A thousand pound raise would therefore add £720 and lift take-home to £15,041.40.
Scotland on £15,000
In Scotland every pound of the taxable slice falls in the starter band, which covers the first £3,967 of taxable pay at 19%. Scottish income tax is £459.99, and the Scottish take-home of £14,345.61 is £24.21 higher.
The starter band is not yet full at £15,000, so the Scottish advantage keeps growing with pay until the band is used up. A Scottish raise of a thousand pounds adds £730, a little more than the same raise gives elsewhere in the UK.
Loans and a five per cent pension
No undergraduate plan and no postgraduate loan takes anything from £15,000. The lowest threshold, for a postgraduate loan, is £21,000, and the page at that salary shows a borrower there with nothing yet to repay.
A five per cent salary sacrifice pension leaves £13,781.40. Net pay and relief at source both leave £13,721.40, which is £60 less, because only salary sacrifice also cuts National Insurance. The methodology explains how each scheme treats the contribution.
| Plan | Repayment a year | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £0 | £14,321.40 |
| Plan 2 | £0 | £14,321.40 |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £0 | £14,345.61 |
| Plan 5 | £0 | £14,321.40 |
| Postgraduate loan | £0 | £14,321.40 |
| Type of scheme | Take-home a year |
|---|---|
| Salary sacrifice | £13,781.40 |
| Net pay | £13,721.40 |
| Relief at source | £13,721.40 |
Try other figures in the take-home pay calculator.
Questions
How much is £15,000 a week after tax?
The weekly figure is £275.41 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A Scottish taxpayer gets £275.88, a little more because of the starter rate on the taxable part of pay.
How much tax do I pay on £15,000?
Income tax is £484.20 a year outside Scotland and £459.99 in Scotland. Employee National Insurance adds £194.40 on £15,000 in every part of the UK.
How far is £15,000 below the median salary?
It is £24,039 less than the median full-time salary in April 2025, which stood at £39,039 according to the Office for National Statistics. That puts £15,000 at under two fifths of the median.