Take-home pay for part-time workers

Part-time workers pay tax and National Insurance on the same rules as everyone else, but more of their pay falls under the thresholds, so they keep a bigger share of it. In 2026/27 you pay no Income Tax on the first £12,570 a year and no employee National Insurance on the first £242 a week (£1,048 a month). A part-time NHS worker on 60 per cent of band 3 earns £15,456 and takes home about £13,844 a year after pension, tax and National Insurance.

The thresholds that matter

Threshold	Weekly	Monthly	Annual
National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit	£129	£559	£6,708
Auto-enrolment qualifying earnings start	£120	£520	£6,240
Auto-enrolment earnings trigger	£192	£833	£10,000
Personal allowance and NI Primary Threshold	£242	£1,048	£12,570

Below the Lower Earnings Limit you pay no National Insurance and earn no credit towards the State Pension from that job. Between the Lower Earnings Limit and £242 a week you still pay nothing, but the year counts towards your National Insurance record as if you had paid. Above £242 a week you pay 8 per cent on the excess.

Student loan thresholds start at £25,000 a year for Plan 5, £26,900 for Plan 1 and £29,385 for Plan 2, so most part-time salaries in schools and the NHS are below them. The postgraduate loan threshold is lower, at £21,000.

Tax is yearly, National Insurance is per payday

Income Tax through PAYE works across the whole tax year. If your hours vary, a busy month does not push you into paying more tax for the year: payroll looks at your total pay and allowance to date.

National Insurance is different. It is worked out on each pay period by itself. If you are paid monthly and earn £900 one month and £1,300 the next, you pay nothing in the first month and 8 per cent on £252 in the second, even though your average is under the threshold. People on variable part-time hours can pay some National Insurance over a year in which their total pay is below £12,570.

Worked example: part-time NHS band 3

Say you work 0.6 of full time (22.5 hours a week) as a band 3 in England on the entry point of £25,760. Your actual salary is £15,456. You are in the NHS Pension Scheme and have no student loan.

Item	Annual	Monthly
Gross pay	£15,456.00	£1,288.00
NHS pension (6.5%)	£1,004.64	£83.72
Income Tax	£376.27	£31.36
National Insurance	£230.88	£19.24
Take-home pay	£13,844.21	£1,153.68

The pension rate is 6.5 per cent because the NHS scheme sets your tier from your actual pensionable pay, which is in the £13,260 to £28,854 band. On the full-time salary the rate would also be 6.5 per cent, but for someone part time at a higher band the actual-pay rule can put you in a lower tier than a full-timer on the same grade. The Teachers’ Pension Scheme works the same way. Public sector pensions for part-time staff explains how part-time service counts towards your pension.

Worked example: two days a week on the National Living Wage

Now say you are 21 or over, paid the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour, and work 16 hours a week. That is £203.36 a week, or £10,574.72 a year.

You pay no Income Tax, because the annual total is under £12,570. You pay no National Insurance, because each week’s pay is under £242, but you are above the £129 Lower Earnings Limit, so the year still counts for your State Pension. You earn more than the £10,000 auto-enrolment trigger, so an employer that does not offer a public sector scheme must enrol you in a workplace pension, with contributions on your earnings above £6,240. Take-home pay is the full £203.36 a week, less any pension contribution.

Two part-time jobs

Many people combine part-time jobs: a teaching assistant post and a lunchtime supervisor role, or a part-time NHS contract plus bank shifts. Tax and National Insurance treat them differently.

For Income Tax, you have one personal allowance. HMRC normally gives it all to your main job and gives the second job a BR code, so everything from that job is taxed at 20 per cent. If your main job pays less than £12,570, you can ask HMRC to split the allowance so you are not overtaxed. Tax when you have two jobs shows how.

For National Insurance, each job is assessed separately, so you get the £242 weekly threshold in each one. Two jobs paying £200 a week each mean no National Insurance at all, where one job paying £400 a week would mean 8 per cent on £158. The exception is two jobs with the same employer, where earnings are usually added together.

Checking your figures

Your payslip shows the hours, rate, tax code and each deduction. If your tax code is not 1257L, or BR on a second job, find out why before assuming the deduction is right. The take-home pay calculator accepts a part-time salary and shows the same breakdown as the examples here, and what pro rata salary means shows how to get from the advertised figure to your own.