Want to know what a salary actually leaves you with — and how it compares with locum work? The salary calculator estimates your take-home pay for the current tax year, then helps you compare an employed (PAYE) role with self-employed locuming, or weigh up doing both at once.
Annual income
£52,000
£38,640 take-home
See your take-home in seconds#
- 1
Open the calculator
Go to /salary.
- 2
Enter your salary and period
In the Salary box, type the figure and pick the period from the dropdown (per year, per month, per 4 weeks, per week, per day or per hour). If you enter anything other than per year, the annual equivalent shows underneath.
- 3
Pick your tax region
Choose your Tax region — England, Wales & NI, or Scotland for the Scottish rates.
- 4
Set your hours
Set Hours per week — this drives the per-hour figure and defaults to 37.5.
- 5
Add pension and student loan
Add a Pension method and percentage if you contribute, and a Student loan plan if you repay one.
No save button needed
Your results appear straight away — there's nothing to submit. If you're signed in, your inputs follow you across devices; signed out, they're remembered on that browser.
Reading the breakdown#
At the top you get your headline Take-home pay per year, the monthly figure, and the share of gross you keep. Below that:
- A coloured bar splitting gross into take-home, income tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension.
- Take-home by period — the same pay shown by hour, day, week, 4 weeks, month and year, with gross alongside.
- Annual breakdown — a line-by-line table of gross salary, each deduction (yearly, monthly and as a percent of gross), and your effective deduction rate.
Comparing PAYE with self-employed — and both together#
Most locum pharmacists aren't strictly one or the other, so it's worth knowing how the two routes differ before you read the figures.
An employed salary. Tax and National Insurance are deducted through payroll, and the calculator shows your take-home pay per year, per month and down to the hour. Enter the figure in the Salary box and you're done.
The Employed and self-employed? panel handles the mix. Answer Yes to "Do you also do self-employed locum work alongside this salary?", then enter Your annual locum profit (income minus expenses). If you're signed in and have used the Tax page, this can pre-fill from there.
Keep this on for the realistic picture
Leave Factor this salary into your locum tax estimate? on (recommended): your salary fills your tax-free allowance and lower bands first, so your locum profit is taxed on top — the realistic picture if you do both. You'll see the locum tax due via Self Assessment, plus how much more the salary pushes it up. Turn it off and the calculator treats locum work as your only income, which understates the bill.
To dig into the self-employed side on its own — including expenses and mileage — use the Tax page.
Estimates, not advice
Every figure here is a general estimate, not tax or financial advice — check your own position on GOV.UK or with an accountant.
Next, see going self-employed.