Pay Rise Calculator: what do you actually keep?
The only calculator built around this Parliament's defining tax policy: thresholds frozen to 2030/31. Enter your rise and see what survives tax and NI — and what the freeze costs you compared with honest, inflation-linked thresholds.
Your rise
The tax rise nobody announced
Freezing tax thresholds while wages rise is the biggest revenue-raiser of this Parliament — worth tens of billions a year by 2030 without a single rate going up. Every pay rise you get is taxed a little harder than the last, and around £50,270 the cliff is brutal: 40% tax plus child-benefit clawback can leave a parent keeping barely a third of a rise. Labour keeps the freeze; Reform would reverse it in one jump; the Conservatives would end it for pensioners only. This calculator exists so you can see the mechanism working on your own payslip — the full background is in our fiscal drag guide and crossover salaries analysis.
Frequently asked questions
How much of a pay rise do you keep after tax?
A basic-rate worker keeps 72% (after 20% tax + 8% NI); a higher-rate worker keeps 58%; between £100,000 and £125,140 you keep just 38% as the personal allowance tapers away. Student loans take another 9%. Enter your numbers for your exact figure.
What is fiscal drag costing me?
With thresholds frozen until 2030/31, each pay rise pushes more income into tax than the pre-freeze convention of inflation-linked thresholds would. The calculator shows the gap on your specific rise — repeated annually, it compounds into hundreds or thousands of pounds.
Why did my pay rise push me into 40% tax?
The £50,270 higher-rate threshold hasn't moved since 2021 while average pay has risen over 20%. Millions have been dragged over it on unremarkable salaries — that's the design, not an accident: a frozen threshold is a tax rise that never needs announcing.