How to calculate your take-home pay
Take-home pay is your gross salary minus income tax, social contributions (National Insurance in the UK, PRSI/USC in Ireland, FICA in the US) and anything else deducted at source such as pension contributions or student loan repayments. Tax is charged in bands, so only the slice of income inside each band is taxed at that band's rate — not your whole salary.
Take-home = gross pay − income tax − social contributions − pension − student loan − other deductions
Do it automatically — Take-home pay calculatorStep by step
- 1Start with your gross annual salary before anything is taken off.
- 2Subtract any salary-sacrifice pension contributions — these come off before tax is worked out.
- 3Apply your personal allowance or standard credits, then tax each band slice at its own rate.
- 4Add social contributions (NI, PRSI + USC, or Social Security + Medicare) on the qualifying earnings.
- 5Subtract student loan repayments and any post-tax deductions, then divide by 12 for a monthly figure.
What trips people up
- • The personal allowance tapers away once income passes a high-earner threshold, creating an effective marginal rate spike.
- • A wrong tax code is the single most common reason a payslip is short — check it against your latest coding notice.
Common questions
Why is my net pay different every month?
Variable pay, overtime and bonuses push you temporarily into a higher band, and cumulative tax codes true up across the year.
Does a pay rise ever leave me worse off?
Almost never on the headline rate, but allowance tapering and benefit cliff-edges can make a narrow band of income very expensive.
Skip the maths
Quick net-pay estimate for the UK, Ireland and US using 2026 bands.
Open the gross → net pay tool