Nothing you enter is ever saved
Reverse calculator

What salary do I need to earn?

Tell us the take-home pay you're aiming for and we'll work backwards to the gross salary that gets you there — useful for negotiating offers, setting a rate as a contractor, or working out what a job needs to pay.

What take-home pay do you want?

£
%
Salary sacrifice, before tax
Gross salary needed
£0
per year
Gross pay£0
Income Tax−£0
National Insurance−£0
Take-home pay£0
Why this matters: tax bands and thresholds aren't linear, so you can't just divide your target take-home by 0.8 and call it a day. This solves for the exact gross figure — including the effect of the personal allowance taper above £100,000 — so the number on the left actually produces the take-home you asked for.
See the full payslip breakdown → Compare two salaries instead →

How the required salary is worked out

There's no simple formula for "gross needed to net £X" — so this calculator searches for the exact answer instead of guessing at one.

Why there's no formula

Income Tax is banded, National Insurance has its own thresholds, and student loan repayments only kick in above a plan-specific figure — and above £100,000 your Personal Allowance itself starts shrinking, changing the shape of the curve again.

How it solves it

It tries a gross salary, calculates the resulting take-home exactly the way the main NetSlip calculator does, and narrows in until the take-home matches what you asked for, to the penny.

This is particularly useful when negotiating a job offer around a take-home number a landlord or lender expects, when setting a day rate as a contractor, or when you simply want to know what payrise would be needed to clear a certain amount every month after deductions.

Rates and thresholds are for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 – 5 April 2027). This calculator is provided for planning purposes and doesn't account for every individual circumstance — treat it as a strong estimate, not a guarantee.