£17 an hour is how much a year in the UK?
- Income tax£4,11612.4%
- National Insurance£1,6465.0%
- Take-home pay£27,38882.6%
At the UK full-time pattern of 37.5 hours and 52 weeks, £17 an hour is £33,150 a year. Income tax and National Insurance take £5,762, leaving £27,388 — £2,282 a month. Pay the statutory 5% workplace pension and the net becomes £26,311, £1,076 less, because the pension comes out before income tax.
The same £17 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 | £14,144 | −£315 | −£126 | £13,703 | £1,142 |
| 20 hours | 1,040 | £17,680 | −£1,022 | −£409 | £16,249 | £1,354 |
| 25 hours | 1,300 | £22,100 | −£1,906 | −£762 | £19,432 | £1,619 |
| 30 hours | 1,560 | £26,520 | −£2,790 | −£1,116 | £22,614 | £1,885 |
| 35 hours | 1,820 | £30,940 | −£3,674 | −£1,470 | £25,796 | £2,150 |
| 37.5 hours | 1,950 | £33,150 | −£4,116 | −£1,646 | £27,388 | £2,282 |
| 40 hours | 2,080 | £35,360 | −£4,558 | −£1,823 | £28,979 | £2,415 |
| 45 hours | 2,340 | £39,780 | −£5,442 | −£2,177 | £32,161 | £2,680 |
| 48 hours | 2,496 | £42,432 | −£5,972 | −£2,389 | £34,071 | £2,839 |
What the workplace pension changes at £17 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 | — | −£4,116 | −£1,646 | £27,388 | £2,282 |
| 5% | −£1,346 | −£3,847 | −£1,646 | £26,311 | £2,193 |
| 8% | −£2,153 | −£3,685 | −£1,646 | £25,665 | £2,139 |
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 £17 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 £33,150 a year:
| Plan | Threshold | Rate | Repayment a year | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% | −£563 | −£47 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% | −£339 | −£28 |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | 9% | Nothing | — |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% | −£734 | −£61 |
| Postgraduate loan | £21,000 | 6% | −£729 | −£61 |
4 plans apply at this rate; a borrower is only on one of them, so use the line that matches your loan.
£17 an hour in England versus Scotland
National Insurance and the personal allowance are identical across the UK; only the income tax bands differ. At £33,150 the gap is £3 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 | −£4,116 | −£1,646 | £27,388 | — |
| Scotland | −£4,113 | −£1,646 | £27,391 | -£3 |
What 7.5 extra hours a week are worth at £17
A 45-hour week at the same rate adds £6,630 of gross pay a year (£553 a month) and £4,774 of take-home (£398 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 £2,387 more in the hand.
Nearby hourly rates
Is £17 an hour a good wage in the UK?
It is £33,150 a year before tax and £2,282 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 17.4%, 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.