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UK Total Compensation Calculator

Base, bonus, employer pension, RSUs, BIK — the full picture, not just gross salary. Surfaces the £100k–£125,140 60% trap explicitly, and shows how pension salary sacrifice claws back the personal allowance.

Nick Walsh
By Nick Walsh, Founder · ~20 years building systems at Goldman Sachs · LinkedIn ↗
Last reviewed 16 June 2026 · Tool is not regulated financial advice
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Region & tax year

Tax region Scottish income tax bands differ from rUK — choose the region your tax code applies to (your tax code starts with S if you're a Scottish taxpayer).
Student loan plan

Tax year 2026/27. The Personal Allowance and rate thresholds remain frozen at their 2021 levels through 2027/28 per the November 2022 Autumn Statement — so 2024/25 published figures still apply.

Your compensation

Pension

Pension contribution method Salary sacrifice reduces gross pay BEFORE income tax AND NI — much more efficient than relief-at-source for higher earners. Most employers offer it; ask HR if you're not sure.

Equity & benefits

How this calculator works

Total compensation is everything your employer hands you — cash and non-cash — over a year. Comparing offers on base salary alone is a common, expensive mistake; a £75k base with a strong RSU grant and 10% employer pension can be worth materially more than £90k base with no extras.

The take-home calculation follows the UK PAYE order of operations:

  1. Salary sacrifice pension first — reduces gross pay before income tax and NI are calculated.
  2. Income tax on the remaining gross, applying your region’s bands and the Personal Allowance taper if adjusted net income exceeds £100k.
  3. National Insurance (Class 1 employee) on the remaining gross at 8% (between PT and UEL) / 2% (above UEL).
  4. Student loan at 9% (Plans 1/2/4/5) or 6% (Postgrad) on earnings above the plan’s threshold.
  5. Relief-at-source pension (if not salary sacrifice) is deducted from net pay; HMRC tops up at 20% basic-rate inside the pension automatically.

Common questions

What is the £100k 60% tax trap?

Earn over £100,000 in adjusted net income and you start losing the £12,570 Personal Allowance — £1 for every £2 over. By £125,140 the allowance is gone. The combined effect of losing tax-free income while paying higher-rate tax on the new earnings produces an effective marginal rate of around 60% on each pound earned in that band. Most payroll software does not flag it.

How does pension salary sacrifice help?

Salary sacrifice reduces gross pay before income tax AND NI. For higher earners in the 60% trap, increasing pension contributions via salary sacrifice can pull adjusted net income back below £100,000 — restoring the Personal Allowance. The effective cost of an extra pound into your pension can be as low as ~40p after tax and NI savings.

What’s included in total compensation?

Base salary, cash bonus, employer pension contribution, employee pension contribution, RSUs / equity (annualised vest value), and benefits in kind (private medical, car allowance, company car). Adding these up is the only honest way to compare job offers.

Why does Scotland have different bands?

Scottish income tax on earned income is set by the Scottish Parliament. Scotland has six bands (Starter 19%, Basic 20%, Intermediate 21%, Higher 42%, Advanced 45%, Top 48%) versus the rest of the UK’s three (Basic 20%, Higher 40%, Additional 45%). NI and the Personal Allowance are still UK-wide.

Do my figures leave my browser?

No. Every calculation runs locally. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is logged, nothing persisted. See the Privacy Policy for the wider product’s data handling.

The full app

Total comp is a moment. The decisions are a process.

You worked out your take-home today. The questions that follow — should I salary-sacrifice another 5% to stay out of the 60% trap? when does that RSU grant fully vest? is my employer actually matching the pension I think they are? — those need a tool that watches the numbers over time, not a one-off calculator. That’s what No More Winging It does.

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Real take-home, every month. Your actual PAYE deductions, not a once-a-year estimate. Pay rise lands? The app shows the after-tax number that hit your account, not the marketing number from your offer letter.
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Pension projections that update. Six what-if scenarios — conservative growth, retire 5 years early, double contributions. Change one input on the Pension page and every scenario updates.
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All your pensions in one place. Workplace, SIPP, frozen pots from previous jobs. Add them once; the total drives the projection and your net worth.
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Bank statements parsed by AI. Upload a PDF and the transactions categorise themselves. Spend by category falls out for free — no app-switching, no manual tagging.
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Personal Intelligence chat. Ask "is my salary-sacrifice high enough to dodge the 60% trap?" against your actual numbers. Direct, unfiltered analysis tied to your portfolio.

Free tier is genuinely free, forever, manual entry, no card required. Pro at £15/month or £150/year adds AI document upload, the Personal Intelligence chat, the daily intelligence feed and live asset pricing.

Try it free — no card needed → See the full feature list

Tool built and maintained by Nick Walsh, founder of No More Winging It. Tax constants sourced from Stop Winging It (UK Edition 2025/26, Appendix A) — these values remain current for 2026/27 because the rate-band freeze was extended through 2027/28 in the November 2022 Autumn Statement. Spot a wrong figure? Email nick@nomorewingingit.ai. Last reviewed 16 June 2026.

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