£20,000 after tax
On £20,000 you take home £17,920 a year, which is £1,493.34 a month. Your marginal rate is 28.0%, so that is what the next pay rise will really be worth.
That is £17,920 a year after income tax, National Insurance and anything else coming off your pay.
- Income tax
- £1,486
- National Insurance
- £594
- Effective rate
- 10.4%
- Marginal rate
- 28.0%
| Year | Month | Week | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | £20,000.00 | £1,666.67 | £384.62 | £10.26 |
| Income tax | £-1,486.00 | £-123.83 | £-28.58 | £-0.76 |
| National Insurance | £-593.92 | £-49.49 | £-11.42 | £-0.30 |
| Take-home pay | £17,920.08 | £1,493.34 | £344.62 | £9.19 |
£20,000 across the four UK nations
| Nation | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home | A month | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | £1,486 | £594 | £17,920 | £1,493.34 | 10.4% |
| Wales | £1,486 | £594 | £17,920 | £1,493.34 | 10.4% |
| Northern Ireland | £1,486 | £594 | £17,920 | £1,493.34 | 10.4% |
| Scotland | £1,446 | £594 | £17,960 | £1,496.65 | 10.2% |
The payslip, period by period
| Paid | Gross | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly | £20,000.00 | £1,486.00 | £594.40 | £17,919.60 |
| Monthly | £1,666.67 | £123.83 | £49.49 | £1,493.34 |
| 4-weekly | £1,538.46 | £114.31 | £45.64 | £1,378.52 |
| Fortnightly | £769.23 | £57.15 | £22.82 | £689.26 |
| Weekly | £384.62 | £28.58 | £11.41 | £344.63 |
With a pension and a student loan
| Setup | Pension | Student loan | Take-home | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% pension | £0 | £0 | £17,920 | £1,493.34 |
| 5% pension | £1,000 | £0 | £17,120 | £1,426.67 |
| 5% pension, Plan 2 | £1,000 | £0 | £17,120 | £1,426.67 |
| 8% pension, Plan 2 | £1,600 | £0 | £16,640 | £1,386.67 |
| 5% pension, Plan 5 | £1,000 | £0 | £17,120 | £1,426.67 |
| 10% pension | £2,000 | £0 | £16,320 | £1,360.01 |
What £20,000 actually covers
At £1,493.34 a month, the usual advice of keeping rent to 30% of income means £448.00 if you apply it to take-home, and £500.00 if you apply it to gross — which is what most people quoting the rule actually mean. A letting agent will typically accept up to £666.67 a month on this salary. Those are three quite different flats. The rent calculator does all three tests.
| City | Take-home a month | Rent | Left over | Rent as %% of net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | £1,493.34 | £950.00 | £543.34 | 63.6% |
| Oxford | £1,493.34 | £780.00 | £713.34 | 52.2% |
| Cambridge | £1,493.34 | £760.00 | £733.34 | 50.9% |
| Reading | £1,493.34 | £750.00 | £743.34 | 50.2% |
| Brighton | £1,493.34 | £740.00 | £753.34 | 49.6% |
| Bristol | £1,493.34 | £685.00 | £808.34 | 45.9% |
| Edinburgh | £1,496.65 | £675.00 | £821.65 | 45.1% |
| Milton Keynes | £1,493.34 | £645.00 | £848.34 | 43.2% |
| Manchester | £1,493.34 | £590.00 | £903.34 | 39.5% |
| Birmingham | £1,493.34 | £550.00 | £943.34 | 36.8% |
If you are weighing a move, the London page and the Manchester page go through the same salary city by city, and the relocation calculator does it for a specific pair. If you are weighing a job offer rather than a move, the offer comparison calculator adds the pension and the commute to the arithmetic.
Salaries either side of this one
The next step up is worth £720 of take-home at this level, about £60.00 a month. Neighbouring figures: £17,000, £18,000, £19,000, £21,000, £22,000, £23,000.
If you earned a bit more
A rise from £20,000 to £21,000 adds £720 to your year, which is £60.00 a month. That is 72.0% of the gross rise, and the reason for the gap is your 28.0% marginal rate. The pay rise calculator shows where the thresholds that change it actually sit.
Questions people actually ask
How much is £20,000 after tax?
£17,920 a year, or £1,493.34 a month, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is £17,960 a year.
How much tax do I pay on £20,000?
£1,486 of income tax and £594 of National Insurance, an effective rate of 10.4%. Your marginal rate — what the next pound costs — is 28.0%.
Is £20,000 a good salary?
Median full-time pay in the UK is around £38,000, so £20,000 sits below that. What matters more is where you live: £1,493.34 a month goes a great deal further in Sheffield than in London, and the city comparison puts numbers on that.
Figures on this page are for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) and were last checked on 29 August 2026. Every rate we use is listed on the sources page.