Independent · every figure traced to a dated circular
Pay figures you can check
Every rate here is transcribed from a published circular and carries the date it was verified. Every figure worked out from those rates — a take-home estimate, an hourly rate, a month of backpay — shows its arithmetic line by line. Nothing is derived by applying a percentage, because that is how rounding errors get in.
Pick your band to see your take-home pay
Opens the take-home calculator at that band’s entry step, with its working. Change the step and your hours there.
What would you like to work out?
- Take-home pay
What actually reaches your bank after income tax, National Insurance and pension — in whichever of the four nations you work.
Band 5, England · £2,040.25 a month - NHS pay bands
Every Agenda for Change band and step, annual and hourly, for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Bands 1–9 · 3.3% this year - Annual leave
Entitlement in hours rather than days, because a day is not the same length for everyone on the rota.
27–33 days · plus public holidays - Sick pay
How long full pay lasts and when it drops to half — after any absence in the last twelve months, and under your own nation’s definition of full pay.
Up to 6 + 6 months - Maternity pay
The occupational and statutory schemes week by week, so you can see what each of the 52 weeks actually pays.
Up to 52 weeks - Paternity leave
Two service tests that count different service — which is why someone who has just moved trust can get full pay and no statutory pay.
2 weeks · full pay after 12 months - Redundancy pay
A month per year of reckonable service — bounded in England and not in the other three nations, which changes it by half at the edges.
2–24 years · Section 16 - Pension contributions
What comes off your pay for the pension and on what — three schemes across four nations, and Northern Ireland charges more on identical bands.
England & Wales · 5.2–12.5% of pensionable pay - London weighting
The High Cost Area Supplement at every band — and why the headline 20% is what only 12 of 72 pay points actually get.
Inner London · £5,794–£8,746 a year - Council backpay
What you are owed for the months before the new rate reached your payslip, split into back pay and the month’s own increase.
NJC spine · 3.3% this year
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NJC — local government
The 3.3% award for 2026-27 took effect 1 April 2026. Most employers implement months later and pay arrears in a lump.
- Backpay calculator — what you are owed, and which payslip it lands in
- When employers pay — who has stated a month, on whose word
- The pay scales — every Green Book point, annual and hourly
- Allowances — sleep-ins, standby, night work, with what each went up by
- If you have already left — you are still owed the months you worked
- Past awards — 2025-26, kept at their own address
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NHS — Agenda for Change
A 3.3% rise applied to every pay point in England from 1 April 2026 — but the four nations did four different things, and only one of them is 3.3%.
- Take-home pay — what reaches your bank after tax, NI and pension
- NHS pay bands — every band, entry to top, and how long each step takes
- The pay rise, by nation — what each nation actually got, and who is still waiting
- Overtime — time-and-a-half above 37.5 hours a week, and why that is not your contracted hours
- Unsocial hours — the lowest bands are paid the most, often reported the wrong way round
- By nation: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
Where pay stands right now
| Who | This year | From | Full-time week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Council staff (NJC) | 3.3% | 1 April 2026 | 37 hours |
| NHS England | 3.3% | 1 April 2026 | 37.5 hours |
| NHS Scotland | 3.75% | 1 April 2026 | 36 hours |
| NHS Wales | 3.3% | 1 April 2026 | 37.5 hours |
| NHS Northern Ireland | no award yet — still on 2025/26 | — | 37.5 hours |
Four different answers for what is reported as one NHS pay rise, and a working week that is not the same in all of them. Each figure comes from that nation’s own circular.
How to trust any of this
- Methodology — the formula, the rounding rule, and what is excluded.
- Sources — every document, with its date and file hash.
- Corrections — anything we got wrong, and when we fixed it.
What this site does not cover
Other public sector pay. Police, fire and civil service pay are negotiated separately and are not here. Neither is Scotland’s SJC, which covers Scottish council staff and is a different agreement from the NJC. Teaching pay is out too. The site does two things properly rather than eight badly.
Things a national table cannot know. Your tax code, salary sacrifice, overtime you actually worked, or what your employer decided locally. The take-home calculator says which of those it has ignored, every time it answers.
Advice of any kind. Every figure here is arithmetic from a published document. Nothing recommends a course of action or says an option suits you — see the terms.