£24 an hour is how much a year in the UK?
- Income tax£6,84614.6%
- National Insurance£2,7385.9%
- Take-home pay£37,21679.5%
At the UK full-time pattern of 37.5 hours and 52 weeks, £24 an hour is £46,800 a year. Income tax and National Insurance take £9,584, leaving £37,216 — £3,101 a month. Pay the statutory 5% workplace pension and the net becomes £35,593, £1,622 less, because the pension comes out before income tax.
The same £24 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 | £19,968 | −£1,480 | −£592 | £17,897 | £1,491 |
| 20 hours | 1,040 | £24,960 | −£2,478 | −£991 | £21,491 | £1,791 |
| 25 hours | 1,300 | £31,200 | −£3,726 | −£1,490 | £25,984 | £2,165 |
| 30 hours | 1,560 | £37,440 | −£4,974 | −£1,990 | £30,476 | £2,540 |
| 35 hours | 1,820 | £43,680 | −£6,222 | −£2,489 | £34,969 | £2,914 |
| 37.5 hours | 1,950 | £46,800 | −£6,846 | −£2,738 | £37,216 | £3,101 |
| 40 hours | 2,080 | £49,920 | −£7,470 | −£2,988 | £39,462 | £3,289 |
| 45 hours | 2,340 | £56,160 | −£9,896 | −£3,134 | £43,130 | £3,594 |
| 48 hours | 2,496 | £59,904 | −£11,394 | −£3,209 | £45,302 | £3,775 |
What the workplace pension changes at £24 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 | — | −£6,846 | −£2,738 | £37,216 | £3,101 |
| 5% | −£2,028 | −£6,440 | −£2,738 | £35,593 | £2,966 |
| 8% | −£3,245 | −£6,197 | −£2,738 | £34,620 | £2,885 |
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 £24 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 £46,800 a year:
| Plan | Threshold | Rate | Repayment a year | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% | −£1,791 | −£149 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% | −£1,567 | −£131 |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | 9% | −£1,170 | −£98 |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% | −£1,962 | −£164 |
| Postgraduate loan | £21,000 | 6% | −£1,548 | −£129 |
5 plans apply at this rate; a borrower is only on one of them, so use the line that matches your loan.
£24 an hour in England versus Scotland
National Insurance and the personal allowance are identical across the UK; only the income tax bands differ. At £46,800 the gap is £792 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 | −£6,846 | −£2,738 | £37,216 | — |
| Scotland | −£7,638 | −£2,738 | £36,424 | £792 |
What 7.5 extra hours a week are worth at £24
A 45-hour week at the same rate adds £9,360 of gross pay a year (£780 a month) and £5,915 of take-home (£493 a month). The gap between those two numbers is the marginal rate on the extra hours: 36.8% 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 £2,957 more in the hand.
Nearby hourly rates
Is £24 an hour a good wage in the UK?
It is £46,800 a year before tax and £3,101 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 20.5%, 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.