£20,000 after tax

A £20,000 salary gives £17,921.40 a year after tax, which is £1,493.45 a month or £9.19 an hour on a week of 37.5 hours. All of the taxable pay is in the basic rate band, and the salary is below every student loan threshold, including the postgraduate one.

How this was worked out

1. Salary: £20,000
2. Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
3. Taxable income: £20,000 − £12,579 = £7,421
4. Basic rate: £7,421 × 20% = £1,484.20
5. Income tax: £1,484.20
6. National Insurance: (£20,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £594.40
7. Take-home pay: £20,000 − £1,484.20 − £594.40 = £17,921.40

Tax on £20,000 step by step

The standard tax code's annual PAYE free pay of £12,579 leaves £7,421 of this salary open to income tax. Charged at 20%, that produces a bill of £1,484.20 for the year.

Employee National Insurance of 8% on pay above £12,570 comes to £594.40. Take both away and £17,921.40 is left. Your employer also pays £2,250 of employer National Insurance, which the business pays on top of your salary.

Scotland on a salary of £20,000

The Scottish figure is £17,961.07 a year after £1,444.53 of income tax. The Scottish starter band at 19% is full at this salary, and the rest of the taxable pay meets the Scottish basic rate, which matches the rate used elsewhere. The result is a Scottish advantage of £39.67.

The salary after tax table shows that this gap stays the same on each salary up to the point where the Scottish intermediate rate begins.

Loans, pensions and a raise

The postgraduate loan starts at £21,000, a thousand pounds above this salary. It takes 6% of pay above that line, so a postgraduate borrower on £20,000 repays £0. The page for the threshold salary still shows no repayment.

Five per cent of £20,000 is a thousand pounds a year. Because tax and National Insurance relief come back on it, that contribution costs £720 of take-home under salary sacrifice and £800 under net pay or relief at source.

A raise of a thousand pounds would add £720 and take the yearly figure to £18,641.40, with no loan repayment yet on any plan.

Try other figures in the take-home pay calculator.

Questions

How much tax is taken from £20,000?

Income tax is £1,484.20 and employee National Insurance is £594.40 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland income tax is £1,444.53 and National Insurance is the same.

What is £20,000 a week after tax?

The weekly take-home is £344.64, or £345.41 for a Scottish taxpayer. Both figures use the standard tax code and leave out pensions and loans.

How does £20,000 compare with the median?

It is £19,039 less than the median full-time salary in April 2025, which the Office for National Statistics put at £39,039. That makes £20,000 a little over half the median.

Other salaries

• £18,000 after tax
• £18,600 after tax
• £19,000 after tax
• £21,000 after tax
• £22,000 after tax
• £23,000 after tax

These are whole-year estimates for 2026/27, with category A National Insurance and a tax code based on the allowance available at this income. The England, Wales and Northern Ireland baseline has no pension contribution or student loan; Scotland is shown separately. The full statutory Personal Allowance is £12,570. The tax code used for this estimate gives £12,579 of annual PAYE free pay, including any reduction in the allowance due to income. This is the payroll amount used in the calculation. Annual totals and rounded monthly or weekly figures can differ by pennies.