£42,000 is a basic-rate salary, with £8,270 of headroom before the 40% band starts at £50,270. You keep £33,760 of it, which is £2,813 a month.
£2,813
per month, after everything
a year£33,760£649 a week
How it breaks down
Gross salary
£42,000
Income tax
£5,886
Basic rate at 20% on £29,430
£5,886
National Insurance
£2,354
Take-home pay
£33,760
Overall tax rate
19.6%
Tax and NI as a share of the whole salary.
On your next £100
28%
Basic rate plus National Insurance.
What is £42,000 after tax per month?
On standard PAYE in 2026/27, £42,000 leaves £2,813 a month, £649 a week and £33,760 a year after Income Tax and employee National Insurance. Pension contributions and student loans are not included in that headline figure; add them in the calculator above if they apply to you.
£42,000 salary: take-home and hourly pay
Gross annual salary
£42,000
Take-home per year
£33,760
Take-home per month
£2,813
Take-home per week
£649
Gross hourly rate (37.5 hours)
£21.54
Approximate hourly take-home
£17.31
What is the hourly rate for a £42,000 salary?
Using a 37.5-hour working week, £42,000 is about £21.54 an hour gross and £17.31 an hour after Income Tax and employee National Insurance. Actual hourly pay depends on contracted hours and unpaid overtime.
Most calculators stop at the take-home figure. The more useful number is the marginal rate — what the taxman takes from the next pound you earn — because that is what decides whether a pay rise, a bonus, or an extra shift is worth it.
For most people it is 28%: twenty pence of income tax and eight pence of National Insurance in every pound. Cross £50,270 and it becomes 42%, because income tax steps up to 40% while NI drops to 2%. Add a Plan 2 student loan and it is 51%.
The 60% band nobody legislated
Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned. You are taxed at 40% on the pound itself, and at 40% again on the 50p of allowance it destroys. With National Insurance that is an effective 62% on every pound in that band — a higher rate than anyone pays at £1,000,000.
This is why a £5,000 rise from £100,000 to £105,000 hands you about £1,900. Putting the same £5,000 into a pension instead costs you roughly £1,900 of take-home and puts £5,000 into your pot.
Salary sacrifice versus a normal pension
Both get you full income tax relief. Only salary sacrifice avoids National Insurance, because the pay never legally becomes yours — your employer contributes it directly.
Net pay / auto-enrolment: the contribution comes out before income tax, but after NI.
Salary sacrifice: comes out before both, so a basic-rate taxpayer keeps an extra 8% of whatever they contribute, and it lowers student loan repayments too.
On a £50,000 salary contributing 10%, that difference is £400 a year for the identical £5,000 going into the pension.