£16 an hour is how much a year in the UK?
- Income tax£3,72611.9%
- National Insurance£1,4904.8%
- Take-home pay£25,98483.3%
At the UK full-time pattern of 37.5 hours and 52 weeks, £16 an hour is £31,200 a year. Income tax and National Insurance take £5,216, leaving £25,984 — £2,165 a month. Pay the statutory 5% workplace pension and the net becomes £24,985, £998 less, because the pension comes out before income tax.
The same £16 an hour at different weekly hours
Part-time hourly work is not a scaled-down version of full-time work. Each row below is recalculated on its own annual figure, so the tax bill is lower than a straight percentage — at 16 hours a week the personal allowance of £12,570 may wipe income tax out entirely.
| Weekly hours | Hours a year | Annual gross | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 hours | 832 | £13,312 | −£148 | −£59 | £13,104 | £1,092 |
| 20 hours | 1,040 | £16,640 | −£814 | −£326 | £15,500 | £1,292 |
| 25 hours | 1,300 | £20,800 | −£1,646 | −£658 | £18,496 | £1,541 |
| 30 hours | 1,560 | £24,960 | −£2,478 | −£991 | £21,491 | £1,791 |
| 35 hours | 1,820 | £29,120 | −£3,310 | −£1,324 | £24,486 | £2,041 |
| 37.5 hours | 1,950 | £31,200 | −£3,726 | −£1,490 | £25,984 | £2,165 |
| 40 hours | 2,080 | £33,280 | −£4,142 | −£1,657 | £27,481 | £2,290 |
| 45 hours | 2,340 | £37,440 | −£4,974 | −£1,990 | £30,476 | £2,540 |
| 48 hours | 2,496 | £39,936 | −£5,473 | −£2,189 | £32,274 | £2,689 |
What the workplace pension changes at £16 an hour
Pension contributions work under a net pay arrangement, so they reduce taxable pay but leave National Insurance untouched. At this rate the pension only applies to earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, which is why 8% does not cost 8% of the whole salary.
| Employee contribution | Pension paid | Income tax | National Insurance | Annual take-home | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | — | −£3,726 | −£1,490 | £25,984 | £2,165 |
| 5% | −£1,248 | −£3,476 | −£1,490 | £24,985 | £2,082 |
| 8% | −£1,997 | −£3,327 | −£1,490 | £24,386 | £2,032 |
The employer adds at least 3% on top of your own contribution — money that never appears in these take-home figures because it goes straight into the pension pot.
Student loan at £16 an hour
Repayment is 9% of everything above your plan's threshold (6% for the postgraduate loan), taken from pay rather than from the annual total in one go. At £31,200 a year:
| Plan | Threshold | Rate | Repayment a year | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% | −£387 | −£32 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% | −£163 | −£14 |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | 9% | Nothing | — |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% | −£558 | −£47 |
| Postgraduate loan | £21,000 | 6% | −£612 | −£51 |
4 plans apply at this rate; a borrower is only on one of them, so use the line that matches your loan.
£16 an hour in England versus Scotland
National Insurance and the personal allowance are identical across the UK; only the income tax bands differ. At £31,200 the gap is £23 a year, and it grows quickly above £43,663 where Scotland's higher rate starts.
| Where you work | Income tax | National Insurance | Annual take-home | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England, Wales & Northern Ireland | −£3,726 | −£1,490 | £25,984 | — |
| Scotland | −£3,703 | −£1,490 | £26,007 | -£23 |
What 7.5 extra hours a week are worth at £16
A 45-hour week at the same rate adds £6,240 of gross pay a year (£520 a month) and £4,493 of take-home (£374 a month). The gap between those two numbers is the marginal rate on the extra hours: 28.0% goes to tax and National Insurance. Note that this is the same rate as normal pay — UK overtime is not taxed at a special rate, it simply adds to the annual total.
If your contract pays overtime at 1.5× after 37.5 hours, the extra hours are worth half again as much gross, and roughly £2,246 more in the hand.
Nearby hourly rates
Is £16 an hour a good wage in the UK?
It is £31,200 a year before tax and £2,165 a month after tax and National Insurance without a pension. Whether that is comfortable depends on housing, region and household size, which this page cannot know — but the effective deduction rate here is 16.7%, so the gross-to-net gap is the part you can plan around.
How many hours is that a month?
37.5 hours a week averages 163 hours a month — a little over 162. Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12, not four weeks of pay, which is why a month never equals 4 × a weekly figure.
Why does the tax line jump between neighbouring rates?
Because income tax is banded, not flat. Crossing £100,000 starts the personal allowance taper and creates an effective 60% band until £125,140; National Insurance drops from 8% to 2% at £50,270. Hourly rates either side of those points behave differently even when the pay difference is small.