Salary Crossword Clue: What a Job Offer Really Pays After Tax

Salary crossword clue: why the advertised number is only half the story

People arrive at pay pages from all sorts of places, and a salary crossword clue is one of the stranger ones. What that phrase usually signals is simpler than it looks: someone wants a number they can trust. Perhaps you are weighing two job offers, or deciding whether to accept a counter-offer. The problem is that the salary written into a contract is gross pay, and gross pay is not what reaches your bank account. Between the two sit Income Tax, employee National Insurance, and possibly a workplace pension contribution and a student loan repayment.

That gap matters when you negotiate. A £2,000 uplift on a £30,000 salary does not hand you £2,000 more spending money; once Income Tax and National Insurance are taken, it is closer to £1,400. Comparing offers on the figure that actually affects your household budget — take-home pay, or net pay — is the only fair test.

Gross salary, net pay and the deductions in between

Gross salary is your contractual pay before deductions. Take-home pay is what remains after PAYE Income Tax, employee National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments.

For a single person on the standard Personal Allowance, with no pension or student loan, a £35,000 salary produces roughly £4,486 in Income Tax and £1,794 in employee National Insurance, leaving about £28,720 a year — around £2,393 a month. That is roughly 82p kept from every pound earned, with about 17.9% going in tax and National Insurance. You can test any figure with the take-home calculator.

Income Tax

Income Tax is charged on taxable pay above the Personal Allowance, which is £12,570 for 2026/27 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The basic rate is 20% on income from £12,571 to £50,270, the higher rate is 40% from £50,271 to £125,140, and the additional rate is 45% above that. HMRC applies your tax code through PAYE, and a non-standard code can reduce the tax-free amount you receive.

Employee National Insurance

Employee National Insurance is worked out separately on the same pay, using its own thresholds: 0% up to £12,570, 8% between £12,571 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270. It is calculated on each pay period rather than the year as a whole, so a month containing a bonus can look misleading on a payslip.

Pension contributions

Workplace pension contributions reduce taxable pay when they are taken by salary sacrifice, which means each pound paid into your pension costs you less than a pound of take-home pay. Relief-at-source and net-pay arrangements work differently, so check which one your employer uses before comparing two offers on headline salary alone.

Student loan repayments

Student loan repayments are collected through PAYE once earnings pass the relevant threshold: £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 in Scotland, £25,000 for Plan 5 and £21,000 for the Postgraduate Loan. The repayment rate is 9%, or 6% for postgraduate loans, on earnings above the threshold. Only one plan at a time is modelled in the estimates used here, so combined undergraduate and postgraduate loans are not covered.

Scotland

Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands and rates, running from 19% to 48%. National Insurance and student loans are the same across the UK, but a Scottish taxpayer on the same gross salary can take home a different amount from someone in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. That is worth checking if an offer involves relocating.

What the latest pay data says

ONS ASHE figures for April 2025 put median gross annual earnings for full-time employees who had been in their jobs for at least a year at £39,039, up 4.3% on £37,439 a year earlier. Median weekly earnings for full-time employees were £766.60, a 5.3% nominal rise and a 1.1% real rise once adjusted using CPIH. Part-time median weekly earnings rose to £280.00, and median hourly earnings excluding overtime for full-time employees reached £19.67.

ONS notes that growth was broad: median weekly earnings rose across all major occupations and sector-level industries, with caring, leisure and other service occupations seeing the largest increase at 7.1%. Northern Ireland recorded the highest regional growth at 7.4%. The 2025 estimates are provisional, and ONS cautions that ASHE figures reflect both pay changes and changes in the composition of the workforce.

At the floor of the pay scale, the National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour in the 2026/27 reference figures used here, up from £12.21. At 37.5 hours a week that is about £24,785 gross a year, or roughly £1,780 a month after tax and National Insurance. That is why a minimum wage role and a slightly better-paid one can look closer together after deductions than before them.

Typical gross salaries for common roles give a sense of the range: a care worker around £24,000, a retail assistant around £23,000, an HGV or delivery driver around £32,000, an NHS registered nurse around £36,000, a police constable around £38,000, a classroom teacher around £40,000, an accountant around £42,000 and a software developer around £55,000. These are planning estimates rather than published pay scales; NHS and teacher scales vary by band, spine point and nation.

More context sits in our salary data and salary articles.

Comparing two offers properly

When you are weighing up offers, compare like with like:

• Gross salary, and any bonus or commission that is contractual rather than discretionary.
• Pension: the employer contribution rate, and whether it is salary sacrifice.
• Working pattern: fewer hours for the same money can beat a higher salary in hourly terms.
• Location and travel costs, which come out of already-taxed income.
• Student loan plan, which changes the effective cost of a pay rise.
• Probation terms, notice periods and pay review dates.

Small differences in pension and working pattern can outweigh a modest salary gap, and the effect is easiest to see once both figures have been run through the take-home calculator. If you are weighing up sectors, topics covers pay by area and role, and about explains how the estimates used here are put together.

Common questions when comparing job offers

Is a higher salary always better after tax?

Usually, but not always by as much as the headline suggests. Once Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and any student loan are taken, a £2,000 rise at basic rate is worth closer to £1,400 in your pocket. A lower salary with a stronger employer pension contribution, salary sacrifice or fewer hours can leave you better off overall.

Why is my take-home pay lower than I expected from the gross salary?

Several things can explain it: your tax code may not be the standard one, a new pension may have started, a student loan repayment may have begun, or a pay period may have included a bonus. Check the deductions listed on your payslip rather than assuming an error.

Do Scottish Income Tax rates change which offer is better?

They can. Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands and rates, from 19% to 48%, while National Insurance and student loan thresholds are the same across the UK. If you are comparing an offer in Scotland with one elsewhere, apply Scottish rates to both figures before deciding.