£20,000 after tax
A £20,000 UK salary leaves you with £17,920 a year, about £1,493 a month, after Income Tax and National Insurance.
Your £20,000 breakdown
| Gross salary | £20,000.00 | £1,666.67 / month |
| Income Tax | −£1,486.00 | −£123.83 / month |
| National Insurance | −£594.40 | −£49.53 / month |
| Take-home pay | £17,919.60 | £1,493.30 / month |
2025/26 tax year, no pension and no student loan. Effective tax rate: 10.4%. Add pension or student loan in the full calculator →
What £20,000 means in 2025/26
£20,000 sits just above the £12,570 personal allowance, so only £7,430 of it actually gets taxed. That's why the effective tax rate of around 10% is much lower than headlines suggest. £20k is roughly full-time work at the National Minimum Wage for someone aged 21+ (£12.21 an hour × 37.5 hours × 52 weeks comes to about £23,800), so it sits at the lower end of full-time UK earnings.
£20,000 in different formats
| Period | Gross | Take-home |
|---|---|---|
| Year | £20,000 | £17,920 |
| Month | £1,667 | £1,493 |
| Week | £385 | £345 |
| Day (260 working days) | £77 | £69 |
| Hour (37.5h × 52 wks) | £10.26 | £9.19 |
How the £20,000 calculation works
UK Income Tax and NI are applied in stages. Here are the workings using 2025/26 HMRC rates.
Personal allowance
The first £12,570 of your salary is tax-free, signalled by tax code 1257L. So £7,430 of your £20,000 salary actually gets taxed.
Income Tax
All of your taxable income fits inside the basic-rate band (which runs to £50,270), so the full amount is taxed at 20%: £7,430 × 20% = £1,486.
National Insurance
NI is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above £50,270. Total NI on £20,000: £594.
Result
£20,000 − £1,486 − £594 = £17,919.60 take-home. Divide by 12 for the monthly figure of £1,493, or by 52 for the weekly figure of £345.
How £20,000 compares to nearby salaries
| Gross | Take-home / year |
|---|---|
| £15,000 | £13,920 |
| £20,000 | £17,920 |
| £25,000 | £21,520 |
| £30,000 | £25,120 |
Try the full take-home calculator pre-filled with £20,000 to layer in pension contributions, student loan and Scottish rates.
Pension contributions on £20,000
If you sacrifice 5% into a workplace pension via salary sacrifice, your effective salary drops to £19,000. You contribute £1,000 a year to retirement while only losing roughly £720 of take-home (the rest is tax and NI you would have paid anyway).
Our salary sacrifice calculator pre-filled with £20,000 shows the exact maths for any sacrifice percentage.
FAQs
How much is £20k a month after tax?
£1,493 a month. £17,920 a year ÷ 12.
How much is £20k a week after tax?
About £345 a week.
What's £20k an hour?
About £10.26 an hour gross at a standard 37.5-hour week × 52 weeks, or roughly £9.19 an hour take-home.
Related: Full take-home calculator pre-filled with £20,000 · All salary lookups · How to read your UK payslip