Salary Comparison Calculator 2026/27: Compare Two Job Offers After Tax

Compare two salaries on what actually lands in your account

Enter both gross salaries above, pick your region, add any pension contribution percentage, and the salary comparison calculator works out the take-home pay for each so you can see the difference in pounds per year and per month. It is built for the moment you are weighing one job offer against another, or deciding whether a pay rise is worth a longer commute.

Why compare salaries on take-home, not gross pay

The gross salary is the number recruiters quote and the number you tend to fixate on. But you never see your gross pay. What hits your bank account is take-home pay: gross minus Income Tax, minus National Insurance, minus any pension contribution and student loan repayment. Because the UK tax system is banded, a higher gross does not always mean a proportionally higher take-home.

Here is the core formula the calculator uses for each salary:

Take-home pay = Gross salary − Income Tax − National Insurance − Pension contribution

The two deductions that shift the most are Income Tax and National Insurance. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27, the first £12,570 you earn is covered by the Personal Allowance and taxed at 0%. The next slice up to £50,270 of total income is taxed at the 20% basic rate. Anything above £50,270 falls into the 40% higher rate until £125,140. National Insurance for employees runs at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then drops to 2% above that.

That 8% to 2% NI step is the reason a salary comparison can surprise you. Once you cross £50,270, every extra pound is taxed at 40% Income Tax but only 2% NI - a combined 42% marginal rate. Below that line you are losing 20% tax plus 8% NI - a 28% marginal rate. So the gap between two offers near the higher-rate threshold shrinks faster than the gross figures suggest.

How the salary comparison calculator works

For each salary you enter, the tool runs the same step-by-step calculation, then compares the results:

• Apply the Personal Allowance. Subtract £12,570 (the 2026/27 allowance) from gross pay to find taxable income. If a salary tops £100,000, the allowance tapers away by £1 for every £2 over that limit, vanishing entirely at £125,140.
• Work out Income Tax band by band. 20% on taxable income up to £37,700, then 40% on the slice from £37,700 to £125,140, then 45% above that.
• Work out National Insurance. 8% on earnings from £12,570 to £50,270, then 2% on anything above.
• Deduct pension and student loan. If you contribute to a pension, that reduces what you keep now but builds your retirement pot - and salary sacrifice arrangements also cut your tax and NI.
• Compare. Subtract those deductions from each gross figure and show the two net amounts side by side.

If you want the underlying take-home maths for a single role in more detail, the salary calculator breaks down one salary line by line, and the take-home pay calculator shows the monthly split.

Worked example: comparing two job offers after tax

Imagine Priya, a marketing manager in Leeds, has two offers on the table. Offer A pays £35,000. Offer B pays £40,000 - £5,000 more on paper. She wants to know what that £5,000 is really worth after tax.

Offer A - £35,000 gross

• Personal Allowance: £12,570, so taxable income = £22,430
• Income Tax: 20% of £22,430 = £4,486
• National Insurance: 8% of (£35,000 − £12,570) = 8% of £22,430 = £1,794.40
• Take-home pay = £35,000 − £4,486 − £1,794.40 = £28,719.60 a year (about £2,393 a month)

Offer B - £40,000 gross

• Personal Allowance: £12,570, so taxable income = £27,430
• Income Tax: 20% of £27,430 = £5,486
• National Insurance: 8% of (£40,000 − £12,570) = 8% of £27,430 = £2,194.40
• Take-home pay = £40,000 − £5,486 − £2,194.40 = £32,319.60 a year (about £2,693 a month)

The £5,000 gross difference becomes £3,600 in take-home - roughly £300 a month extra. Both offers sit fully in the basic-rate band, so Priya keeps 72p of every extra pound. That is the kind of clarity a salary comparison gives you before you sign anything.

Factoring in pension and benefits

Pay is only part of the package. A lower-salary offer with a generous pension can leave you wealthier overall, because employer pension contributions are money on top of your salary, and your own contributions through salary sacrifice cut your tax and NI.

Take a second comparison. Sam, a software developer, has Offer A at £48,000 with a 5% employee pension contribution, and Offer B at £52,000 with a 3% contribution. On gross alone, B wins by £4,000. Comparing take-home after pension salary sacrifice changes the picture:

• Offer A: 5% of £48,000 = £2,400 into the pension, leaving £45,600 taxable. Income Tax £6,606, NI £2,642.40, so take-home after the pension deduction is about £36,352 - plus £2,400 sitting in the pension.
• Offer B: 3% of £52,000 = £1,560 into the pension, leaving £50,440 taxable (just into the higher-rate band). Income Tax £7,608, NI £3,019.40, so take-home after the pension deduction is about £39,813 - plus £1,560 in the pension.

Offer B still pays roughly £3,461 more in your pocket each year, but Offer A puts £840 more into long-term savings. Whether that trade-off is worth it depends on how much you value cash now versus retirement security. A salary comparison calculator that includes pension contributions stops you comparing apples with oranges. If you are weighing a raise rather than a new job, the pay rise calculator shows exactly how much of an increase survives tax.

2026/27 rates and thresholds used in the comparison

These are the figures the calculator applies for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Always confirm against the official source at gov.uk Income Tax rates.

The Personal Allowance tapers by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000 and disappears at £125,140, which creates an effective 60% marginal rate in that band - worth knowing if you are comparing two senior roles near six figures.

Scotland: a salary comparison can change north of the border

If either job is in Scotland, the comparison shifts. Scotland sets its own Income Tax rates and bands, with more bands than the rest of the UK (starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rates) and a higher rate of 42% kicking in lower than England's 40%. The £12,570 Personal Allowance and the National Insurance thresholds stay UK-wide, but the tax on the same gross salary differs. Two identical £55,000 offers - one in Manchester, one in Glasgow - will not produce the same take-home. Use the Scotland tax calculator to run the Scottish side, and compare like for like. This matters most for higher earners, where the rate gap is widest.

Beyond the numbers: what else to weigh

A take-home figure is the anchor, but it is not the whole decision. Before you choose between two offers, factor in:

• Commuting cost and time. An extra £200 a month that disappears into rail fares and an hour more travelling each way may not be a real gain.
• Bonus structure. A lower base with a realistic, contractual bonus can beat a flat higher salary - but treat discretionary bonuses cautiously, since they are taxed at your marginal rate when paid.
• Benefits with a cash value. Private medical cover, life insurance, extra holiday, share schemes and a four-day week all have a price you would otherwise pay yourself.
• Progression and security. A role with a clear path to a senior band may out-earn a higher starting salary within two years.

Run the salary comparison first to get the hard number, then layer these softer factors on top.

Common mistakes when comparing two salaries

• Comparing gross instead of net. The headline gap always looks bigger than the take-home gap. A £5,000 rise across the higher-rate threshold can shrink to barely £2,900 in your pocket.
• Forgetting student loan repayments. If you have a Plan 2 or Plan 5 loan, 9% of everything above the threshold comes off both salaries - and it widens the gap, not narrows it, as pay rises.
• Ignoring pension differences. Comparing a 3% scheme with an 8% scheme on salary alone hides thousands of pounds of deferred pay.
• Mixing up regions. Applying England's bands to a Scottish job (or vice versa) gives the wrong answer. Always set the correct region for each role.
• Assuming an annual figure equals twelve clean monthly payslips. National Insurance is worked out per pay period, not cumulatively like Income Tax, so a one-off bonus month can be taxed more heavily than the annual average implies. The salary comparison calculator gives an annualised estimate - your actual monthly payslip can vary.
• Overlooking the £100,000 trap. Two offers either side of £100,000 are not as far apart as they look, because the Personal Allowance taper means part of the higher salary is effectively taxed at 60%.

For a full breakdown of how each band stacks up on a single income, the Income Tax calculator shows the tax on any salary in isolation, which is useful for sanity-checking a comparison.

These figures are estimates for guidance only and are not personal tax or financial advice. Your exact deductions depend on your tax code, pension scheme and circumstances; check your payslip and the official gov.uk guidance.

Related calculators

Once you have compared your offers, these tools help you go deeper: the salary calculator for a full single-salary breakdown, the take-home pay calculator for your monthly net figure, and the pay rise calculator to see what a raise is really worth after tax.