£12 an hour is how much a year?

£12 an hour by hours worked per week

Yearly figures assume you are paid for 52 weeks, including paid holiday.

Minimum wage check

£12 is £0.71 an hour below the National Living Wage of £12.71, so from April 2026 an employer cannot pay it to anyone aged 21 or over. It is still legal for 18 to 20 year olds, whose minimum is £10.85, and for under-18s and apprentices on £8.

Part-time hours and tax

At 16 hours a week you would earn £9,984 a year, which is below the £12,570 Personal Allowance and the National Insurance threshold, so you pay no Income Tax or NI. Tax only starts once your annual pay goes over £12,570.

Compared with typical UK pay

A 37.5-hour week at £12 pays £450 before tax. The ONS put median full-time pay at £766.60 a week in April 2025, so this is 41% below the middle of the range.

Student loan repayments

A 37.5-hour week at this rate comes to £23,400, below the £29,385 Plan 2 threshold, so you would not repay anything on a Plan 2 student loan. Of the other plans, you would repay on a Postgraduate Loan (£21,000), but not on Plan 1 (£26,900), Plan 4 (£33,795) or Plan 5 (£25,000).

Overtime at time and a half

If your employer pays time and a half, overtime is worth £18 an hour before tax. Ten extra hours at that rate adds £180 to your gross pay, and you keep £129.60 of it after tax and NI on a full-time salary.

In Scotland

On a 37.5-hour week, a Scottish taxpayer on £12 an hour takes home £39.67 more a year (£20,407 in total), because Scotland has different Income Tax bands.

Hours a week before the 40% band

At £12 an hour a 37.5-hour week pays £23,400 a year, £26,870 short of the £50,270 higher-rate threshold. It would take more than 60 hours a week to get there, so at this rate the whole of your pay stays below that line.

The next rate up

Moving up to £12.21 an hour adds £34.13 a month before tax and £24.57 after it on a 37.5-hour week. You keep 72% of that change because the whole difference falls in the basic-rate band, where tax and NI take 28p of each pound.

Guides and definitions

• High Income Child Benefit Charge: how it is worked out and cut (Guide)
• How to read your payslip: every line explained, with an example (Guide)
• National Insurance rates 2026/27: what you pay and how it works (Guide)
• Emergency tax code (An emergency tax code, marked W1, M1 or X, taxes each payday on its own, as if you were paid that amount every period of the year.)
• Marginal tax rate (Your marginal tax rate is the share of your next pound or dollar of income that goes in tax and deductions.)
• P60 (A P60 is the yearly summary of your pay and tax from one employer, due by 31 May if you work there on 5 April.)
• Personal Allowance (The Personal Allowance is the income you can earn each UK tax year before Income Tax starts: £12,570 for 2026/27.)
• Tax code (A UK tax code tells your employer or pension provider how much tax-free pay to give you; 1257L, meaning £12,570, is the most common.)

Salary after tax table · Take-home pay calculator

Nearby hourly rates

• £11.25 an hour (£1,610 a month after tax)
• £11.50 an hour (£1,639 a month after tax)
• £11.75 an hour (£1,668 a month after tax)
• £12.21 an hour (£1,722 a month after tax)
• £12.25 an hour (£1,727 a month after tax)
• £12.50 an hour (£1,756 a month after tax)

Full breakdown for £23,000 after tax · Salary after tax table · Take-home pay calculator

Common questions