What you really earn an hour
Your payslip counts your paid hours. This counts every hour work really takes, and what's left after tax and travel.
Your answer
Enter your salary to see what you really earn an hour.
About this calculator
For anyone comparing jobs, weighing up working from home, or wondering where the time goes. The answer is a rough guide, because the hours are your own estimate.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Your paid rate is your salary divided by your paid hours over 52 weeks, the way employers usually quote it. Your real rate is what you keep after tax and travel costs, divided by all the hours work takes (paid, unpaid and travelling) over the weeks you actually work.
Worked example
You're paid £20.51 an hour, but you keep £13.21 for every hour work really takes.
2026/27 tax year · England · 5% pension taken before tax · no student loan · 37.5 hours paid a week · 5 days a week
| You take home a year | £30,720 |
|---|---|
| Less what getting to work costs you | − £1,800 |
| What you keep a year | £28,920 |
| Hours work takes a week (37.5 hours paid, 3 hours unpaid, 6.7 hours travelling) | 47.2 hours |
| Weeks you work a year (5.6 weeks off) | 46.4 |
| Hours work takes a year | 2,189 hours |
| What you really earn an hour | £13.21 |
Worked out using HMRC's published rates for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027), on a yearly basis.
Questions people ask
Why count travel time?
It's time you give up for your job. Two jobs with the same salary can be worth very different amounts an hour once the commute is counted.
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