UK take-home pay calculator — 2026/27
| Gross annual pay | £28,782 |
| Pension contribution | −£1,127 |
| Income tax | −£3,017 |
| National Insurance | −£1,207 |
| Take-home pay | £23,431 |
Uses 2026/27 rates: Personal Allowance £12,570, employee NI 8% to £50,270 then 2%. Pension is modelled as salary sacrifice: it reduces taxable pay for income tax and National Insurance.
At a glance
On £28,782 a year gross, you'd keep about £1,953 a month after income tax, National Insurance and pension.
How reliable is this figure?
This is an estimate, not a payslip preview. It runs on the 2026/27 tax model (Personal Allowance £12,570; employee National Insurance at 8% up to £50,270, then 2%) and the pay dataset named on this page, reviewed 23 September 2026.
Your actual take-home depends on your tax code, contract terms, overtime patterns and any benefits or deductions your employer applies. If a figure here looks surprising, check it against your latest payslip and the HMRC guidance linked under Sources below.
Scotland uses different income tax bands — toggle your nation in the calculator above. Wales follows the England bands.
Worked example: £28,782 fork-lift driver salary, 2026/27 (England, auto-enrolment on)
| Gross annual salary | £28,782.00 |
| Auto-enrolment pension (5%) | −£1,127.10 |
| Income tax (20% band) | −£3,016.98 |
| Employee National Insurance | −£1,206.79 |
| Annual take-home pay | £23,431.13 |
| Monthly take-home pay | £1,952.59 |
| Weekly take-home | £450.60 |
Assumptions and pay data
- England income tax bands for 2026/27 (6 April 2026 – 5 April 2027)
- Auto-enrolment pension at 5% of qualifying earnings (£6,240–£50,270)
- Employed fork-lift driver at 37.5 hours a week — NOT a self-employed or CIS driver (different maths)
- No student loan repayments and no other deductions
- Shift premiums, night pay and overtime are taxable earnings — include them in the gross you enter; any genuinely tax-free mileage stays out
- Scotland has its own bands — use the nation toggle under the calculator if you pay Scottish income tax
Making sense of fork-lift driver pay
From £14.76 an hour to a yearly figure
The ONS median of £14.76 an hour is a rate, not a salary — the salary depends on the hours behind it. The formula is simple: hourly rate × weekly hours × 52. At 20 hours that gives £15,350.40 a year; at 24 hours, £18,420.48; at 30 hours, £23,025.60; at 37.5 hours, £28,782.00; at 40 hours, £30,700.80; at 45 hours, £34,538.40. In distribution, the hours vary more than the rate does — two drivers on identical pay can have very different incomes.
Put each of those through the calculator and the monthly take-home follows — but do not stop at the base rate. A £2-an-hour night premium across a 37.5-hour week is £3,900 a year of extra gross, and four overtime hours a week at the base rate is another £3,069.12. The driver who models the base rate alone is modelling a job that does not exist; the driver who adds the shift is modelling the payslip.
The same formula works in reverse and it is worth using on job adverts. A £30,000 salary on a 37.5-hour week is £15.38 an hour — above the £14.76 median. A £30,000 salary on a 45-hour week is £12.82 an hour — below it. Adverts quote the salary that flatters the rota; divide it back down before comparing.
The weekly median and the 41.5-hour truth
The ONS weekly median of £612.20 is the figure that confuses people, because it looks like a full-time wage and is not one. Divide it by £14.76 and the answer is about 41.5 hours: the median fork-lift driver works a longer-than-standard week. The weekly figure blends part-time staff into the average, but it also reflects the above-average hours the occupation works — overtime is structural in distribution, not exceptional.
Annualised, £612.20 a week is £31,834.40 a year gross — and that is arguably the more honest 'typical driver' figure than the £28,782 the calculator defaults to, because it already includes the overtime the median week carries. Run £31,834.40 through the calculator rather than £28,782 and the monthly figure moves with it. The weekly median describes the workforce's actual gross; the hourly median describes the rate. You need both, for different jobs.
The practical rule: never budget from £612.20 either. Work out your contracted or typical weekly hours, multiply by your hourly rate, add your premiums and overtime, and put that annual figure in the calculator. The weekly median describes the workforce; it does not describe you.
Premiums and overtime: the gross is bigger than the base rate
Night and shift premiums typically add £1 to £3 an hour to the base rate — a typical market figure, not an ONS one, and it varies by employer. Take the middle of it: £2 an hour across a 37.5-hour week is £75 a week, £3,900 a year. That £3,900 is taxable earnings like any other wages, and it belongs in the gross figure you enter. A driver who puts £28,782 in the calculator while actually earning £32,682 with the night premium is asking the wrong question and getting the wrong answer.
Overtime works the same way and is taxed at your marginal rate. The rate and the trigger for overtime are set by the employer — some pay enhanced rates after a threshold, some pay flat rates for all hours — so check the contract before you model it. What is certain is that every overtime pound goes through income tax and National Insurance exactly like a base-rate pound. There is no separate, friendlier tax treatment for unsocial hours.
One caution about both: premiums and overtime are the least guaranteed parts of the pay. A night premium is written into the contract and usually survives; overtime is discretionary and is the first thing cut when volume drops. Model the shift you are contracted to work, be optimistic-but-honest about the overtime, and keep the two separate in your head even though the calculator adds them together.
What the median hides
The £14.76 median is the middle of everyone, and everyone includes yard drivers on straight hourly deals, DC drivers on nights with premiums, manufacturing drivers on day shifts, agency drivers on weekly PAYE, and London drivers whose rates run above the regions. It does not split any of that out. Geography moves it, the shift moves it, and the certificates move it — a driver holding counterbalance, reach and PPT tickets reaches better-paid roles a single-truck driver does not.
It also hides the self-employed entirely. ASHE covers employees only, so agency drivers' headline hourly rates sit outside the £14.76 — and agency PAYE drivers should still use this calculator, because the tax maths is the same. And it hides the floor it sits on: at £14.76, the median is £2.05 above the £12.71 National Living Wage, which means the base rate is close to the legal minimum and the premiums are doing the heavy lifting.
Read the median as a starting point, not a verdict. New to the yard on a standard days rota, £14.76 is roughly where you land. With nights, a multi-truck certificate or steady overtime, it is the number to beat — and the shift premiums guide shows where the extra comes from.
About this calculator
How the tax engine works
The worked example runs the £28,782 median through the 2026/27 England model in deduction order. First the pension: 5% of qualifying earnings (£28,782 minus the £6,240 lower limit = £22,542), which is £1,127.10. The model is salary-sacrifice: income tax and National Insurance are charged on pay after the pension comes out, so £28,782 − £1,127.10 = £27,654.90 of taxable pay. Income tax is 20% of pay above the £12,570 personal allowance: (£27,654.90 − £12,570) × 20% = £3,016.98. Employee National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270: (£27,654.90 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,206.79. Subtract all three from £28,782 and the take-home is £23,431.13 — £1,952.59 a month, £450.60 a week. Every figure in the worked example is engine-computed, not estimated.
Reviewed and updated
The pay figures and the worked example on this page were checked on 24 September 2026 against the ONS ASHE 2025 provisional release. The tax model covers 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Put your real rate, your real hours and your real premiums in — a calculator fed with guesses returns guesses.
Fork-lift driver take-home pay FAQs
What is the average fork-lift truck driver salary in the UK?
Strictly, £28,782 is a median, not an average: the ONS ASHE 2025 provisional figure (all employees, pay period April 2025) puts the middle of fork-lift driver pay at £14.76 an hour, which annualises to £28,782 at a full-time 37.5-hour week.
After income tax, National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension that leaves £23,431.13 a year (£1,952.59 a month) under the 2026/27 England rules. But the weekly median of £612.20 implies a median week of about 41.5 hours — so a typical full-time driver, with regular overtime and any shift premium, grosses more than £28,782.
How much is £14.76 an hour per year?
At the base rate: £14.76 × 20 hours × 52 weeks = £15,350.40. £14.76 × 30 × 52 = £23,025.60. £14.76 × 37.5 × 52 = £28,782.00. £14.76 × 40 × 52 = £30,700.80. £14.76 × 45 × 52 = £34,538.40.
Those are gross, before premiums and overtime — which is where fork-lift pay is actually made. A £2-an-hour night premium adds £3,900 a year at 37.5 hours. Put the full figure through the calculator for the monthly take-home; the hourly rate alone is only half the question.
I work nights — what will I take home?
Add the premium to your gross first. Night premiums typically add £1–£3 an hour — a typical market figure, varying by employer. Take £2 an hour at 37.5 hours a week: that is £3,900 a year on top of the £28,782 base, so enter £32,682 in the calculator.
The calculator taxes the premium like any other earnings — there is no separate treatment for unsocial hours — and the monthly figure it returns includes the night money. Check your contract for whether the premium also applies to overtime hours, and model it the way you actually work.
I work in Scotland — does this calculator work for me?
Yes — use the nation toggle under the calculator. Scotland runs its own income tax bands (a 19% starter rate, then 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and 48%), while the personal allowance of £12,570, National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension work the same UK-wide.
At £28,782 the Scottish starter band leaves you a touch better off each month: £1,955.90 a month against England's £1,952.59 — the calculator switches the bands automatically and shows the exact figure.
I am agency, not permanent — can I use this calculator?
If you are on agency PAYE — paid weekly through the agency's payroll with tax and National Insurance deducted — yes: the maths is identical to permanent employment, so put your hourly rate and your typical weekly hours in.
If you work through an umbrella company, the deductions are similar but the umbrella's margin and any employer-National-Insurance pass-through change the numbers, so treat the result as approximate. Genuinely self-employed drivers are outside this calculator entirely — and outside the ONS median too, since ASHE covers employees only.
Do overtime and shift premiums go in the calculator?
Yes. Overtime, night premiums and continental shift uplifts are taxable earnings — income tax, National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension all apply to them. Add the year's premiums and overtime to the gross figure you enter and the calculator taxes them at your marginal rate.
Genuinely tax-free items stay out, but fork-lift drivers have few of those — mileage at HMRC approved rates, if you ever claim it, is the main one. When in doubt, match the gross on your payslip: if it is on the payslip as pay, it goes in the calculator.
Does the calculator include my pension?
Yes — auto-enrolment at 5% of qualifying earnings (£6,240–£50,270) is switched on by default. On the £28,782 median that is £1,127.10 a year.
Opting out raises the monthly figure — but you lose the employer contribution too, and on fork-lift pay the employer's 3% is proportionally one of the best deals in the package. Agency PAYE drivers: check whether your agency enrols you; many do, some leave it to you.
What about student loan repayments?
This calculator does not deduct student loan repayments — the worked example assumes no student loan. Repayments come off after tax and National Insurance as 9% of earnings above your plan's threshold, which lowers the monthly figure shown here.
On the £28,782 median, a Plan 5 loan (threshold £25,000) would take about £28.37 a month off the £1,952.59 figure. Work out your exact repayment on the student loan page and subtract it from the take-home shown here.
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Sources
- ONS — Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (provisional). SOC 2020 code 8222 (fork-lift truck drivers), all employees, pay period including April 2025: median £14.76 per hour, £612.20 per week. The £28,782 calculator default is £14.76 × 37.5 hours × 52 weeks. Accessed 24 September 2026.
- GOV.UK — Income Tax rates and allowances 2026/27. Personal Allowance £12,570; 20% to £50,270, 40% to £125,140, 45% above. Accessed 24 September 2026.
- GOV.UK — National Insurance rates 2026/27. Employee Class 1: 8% on £12,570–£50,270, 2% above. Accessed 24 September 2026.
- GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. From 1 April 2026: £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over. The £14.76 median sits £2.05 above the floor. Accessed 24 September 2026.
These are estimates for guidance only, not financial advice. Figures are taken from the sources listed above and were correct when this page was reviewed. Your actual pay depends on your contract, hours and tax code — check your payslip and HMRC guidance if anything looks off.