£21,000 after tax
On £21,000 you take home £18,640 a year, which is £1,553.34 a month. Your marginal rate is 28.0%, so that is what the next pay rise will really be worth.
That is £18,640 a year after income tax, National Insurance and anything else coming off your pay.
- Income tax
- £1,686
- National Insurance
- £674
- Effective rate
- 11.2%
- Marginal rate
- 28.0%
| Year | Month | Week | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | £21,000.00 | £1,750.00 | £403.85 | £10.77 |
| Income tax | £-1,686.00 | £-140.50 | £-32.42 | £-0.86 |
| National Insurance | £-673.92 | £-56.16 | £-12.96 | £-0.35 |
| Take-home pay | £18,640.08 | £1,553.34 | £358.46 | £9.56 |
£21,000 across the four UK nations
| Nation | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home | A month | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | £1,686 | £674 | £18,640 | £1,553.34 | 11.2% |
| Wales | £1,686 | £674 | £18,640 | £1,553.34 | 11.2% |
| Northern Ireland | £1,686 | £674 | £18,640 | £1,553.34 | 11.2% |
| Scotland | £1,646 | £674 | £18,680 | £1,556.65 | 11.0% |
The payslip, period by period
| Paid | Gross | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly | £21,000.00 | £1,686.00 | £674.40 | £18,639.60 |
| Monthly | £1,750.00 | £140.50 | £56.16 | £1,553.34 |
| 4-weekly | £1,615.38 | £129.69 | £51.79 | £1,433.90 |
| Fortnightly | £807.69 | £64.85 | £25.90 | £716.95 |
| Weekly | £403.85 | £32.42 | £12.95 | £358.48 |
With a pension and a student loan
| Setup | Pension | Student loan | Take-home | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% pension | £0 | £0 | £18,640 | £1,553.34 |
| 5% pension | £1,050 | £0 | £17,800 | £1,483.34 |
| 5% pension, Plan 2 | £1,050 | £0 | £17,800 | £1,483.34 |
| 8% pension, Plan 2 | £1,680 | £0 | £17,296 | £1,441.34 |
| 5% pension, Plan 5 | £1,050 | £0 | £17,800 | £1,483.34 |
| 10% pension | £2,100 | £0 | £16,960 | £1,413.34 |
What £21,000 actually covers
At £1,553.34 a month, the usual advice of keeping rent to 30% of income means £466.00 if you apply it to take-home, and £525.00 if you apply it to gross — which is what most people quoting the rule actually mean. A letting agent will typically accept up to £700.00 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 | £1,553.34 | £950.00 | £603.34 | 61.2% |
| Oxford | £1,553.34 | £780.00 | £773.34 | 50.2% |
| Cambridge | £1,553.34 | £760.00 | £793.34 | 48.9% |
| Reading | £1,553.34 | £750.00 | £803.34 | 48.3% |
| Brighton | £1,553.34 | £740.00 | £813.34 | 47.6% |
| Bristol | £1,553.34 | £685.00 | £868.34 | 44.1% |
| Edinburgh | £1,556.65 | £675.00 | £881.65 | 43.4% |
| Milton Keynes | £1,553.34 | £645.00 | £908.34 | 41.5% |
| Manchester | £1,553.34 | £590.00 | £963.34 | 38.0% |
| Birmingham | £1,553.34 | £550.00 | £1,003.34 | 35.4% |
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: £18,000, £19,000, £20,000, £22,000, £23,000, £24,000.
If you earned a bit more
A rise from £21,000 to £22,000 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 £21,000 after tax?
£18,640 a year, or £1,553.34 a month, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is £18,680 a year.
How much tax do I pay on £21,000?
£1,686 of income tax and £674 of National Insurance, an effective rate of 11.2%. Your marginal rate — what the next pound costs — is 28.0%.
Is £21,000 a good salary?
Median full-time pay in the UK is around £38,000, so £21,000 sits below that. What matters more is where you live: £1,553.34 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.