£18 an hour is how much a year in the UK?
- Income tax£4,50612.8%
- National Insurance£1,8025.1%
- Take-home pay£28,79282.0%
At the UK full-time pattern of 37.5 hours and 52 weeks, £18 an hour is £35,100 a year. Income tax and National Insurance take £6,308, leaving £28,792 — £2,399 a month. Pay the statutory 5% workplace pension and the net becomes £27,637, £1,154 less, because the pension comes out before income tax.
The same £18 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 | £14,976 | −£481 | −£192 | £14,302 | £1,192 |
| 20 hours | 1,040 | £18,720 | −£1,230 | −£492 | £16,998 | £1,417 |
| 25 hours | 1,300 | £23,400 | −£2,166 | −£866 | £20,368 | £1,697 |
| 30 hours | 1,560 | £28,080 | −£3,102 | −£1,241 | £23,737 | £1,978 |
| 35 hours | 1,820 | £32,760 | −£4,038 | −£1,615 | £27,107 | £2,259 |
| 37.5 hours | 1,950 | £35,100 | −£4,506 | −£1,802 | £28,792 | £2,399 |
| 40 hours | 2,080 | £37,440 | −£4,974 | −£1,990 | £30,476 | £2,540 |
| 45 hours | 2,340 | £42,120 | −£5,910 | −£2,364 | £33,846 | £2,821 |
| 48 hours | 2,496 | £44,928 | −£6,472 | −£2,589 | £35,868 | £2,989 |
What the workplace pension changes at £18 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 | — | −£4,506 | −£1,802 | £28,792 | £2,399 |
| 5% | −£1,443 | −£4,217 | −£1,802 | £27,637 | £2,303 |
| 8% | −£2,309 | −£4,044 | −£1,802 | £26,945 | £2,245 |
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 £18 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 £35,100 a year:
| Plan | Threshold | Rate | Repayment a year | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% | −£738 | −£62 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% | −£514 | −£43 |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | 9% | −£117 | −£10 |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% | −£909 | −£76 |
| Postgraduate loan | £21,000 | 6% | −£846 | −£71 |
5 plans apply at this rate; a borrower is only on one of them, so use the line that matches your loan.
£18 an hour in England versus Scotland
National Insurance and the personal allowance are identical across the UK; only the income tax bands differ. At £35,100 the gap is £16 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 | −£4,506 | −£1,802 | £28,792 | — |
| Scotland | −£4,522 | −£1,802 | £28,776 | £16 |
What 7.5 extra hours a week are worth at £18
A 45-hour week at the same rate adds £7,020 of gross pay a year (£585 a month) and £5,054 of take-home (£421 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 £2,527 more in the hand.
Nearby hourly rates
Is £18 an hour a good wage in the UK?
It is £35,100 a year before tax and £2,399 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 18.0%, 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.