Hourly pay calculator
An hourly pay calculator multiplies the rate entered by the hours worked, then subtracts any unpaid break, to give the gross pay for a shift, week, month or year. The 2026/27 National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, under gov.uk's National Minimum Wage rates.
How is my pay worked out, line by line?
| Line | Working | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Basic pay | 5 hrs paid at £13.80 | £69.00 |
| Total gross pay | this shift | £69.00 |
How do I work out hourly pay?
The sum behind hourly pay is short. The rate is multiplied by the hours worked. Everything else on this page is a small adjustment to one of those two numbers.
- Start with the hours spent at work. A shift from 9am to 2pm is 5 hours.
- Take off any unpaid break. Thirty minutes is 0.5 of an hour, so 5 hours becomes 4.5 paid hours.
- Multiply the paid hours by the rate. That gives the basic pay.
- Handle overtime on its own. The rate is multiplied by the overtime multiplier to get the overtime rate, then multiplied by the overtime hours.
- Add the basic pay and the overtime pay together. That is the gross pay, the amount before any tax is due.
Part hours are the step most people find difficult. Minutes convert to a fraction of an hour: 15 minutes is 0.25, 30 minutes is 0.5, and 45 minutes is 0.75. For any other figure, the minutes are divided by 60. Twenty minutes divided by 60 is 0.33 of an hour.
The effective hourly rate shown in the results is the gross divided by every hour spent at work, break included. An unpaid break pulls that figure below the headline rate, because that time was worked but not paid. Overtime pushes the effective rate above the headline rate instead.
Tax is worked out on the year, not on a single shift. Whether a shift is taxed depends on total pay across the whole tax year, under gov.uk's Income Tax rates, so the take-home option annualises this pattern first. Income Tax and National Insurance are then applied to that annual figure. Where hours change week to week, the take-home option is best read as a rough guide rather than a payslip.
How much is £13.80 an hour for 5 hours?
Suppose the rate is £13.80 an hour and the shift is 5 hours with no break. The gross is 13.80 times 5, which is £69.00. Staying another half hour adds £6.90, taking the shift to £75.90. A full extra hour adds £13.80, so the shift comes to £82.80.
Adding a 30 minute unpaid break changes the figures. The paid hours drop to 4.5 and the gross falls to £62.10, so the break costs £6.90. Two hours of overtime at time and a half instead pay £20.70 each, which adds £41.40 on top of the basic pay.
Common questions
How much is £13.80 an hour for 5 hours?
£69.00 before any deductions. Multiply the rate by the hours: 13.80 times 5 is 69. If half an hour of that is an unpaid break you are paid for 4.5 hours instead, which is £62.10.
How do I work out my pay for half an hour?
Halve your hourly rate. On £13.80 an hour, half an hour is £6.90. A quarter of an hour, 15 minutes, is a quarter of the rate, so £3.45. For any other number of minutes, divide the rate by 60 and multiply by the minutes.
Is my break paid?
Not automatically. Workers aged 18 or over are entitled to an uninterrupted rest break of at least 20 minutes when a shift runs longer than 6 hours, but the law does not require that break to be paid. Whether you are paid for it depends on your contract, so check what it says. Set the unpaid break box above to take it off your hours.
How much is time and a half on £13.80 an hour?
Time and a half means 1.5 times the normal rate, so £13.80 becomes £20.70 an hour. Double time is 2 times the rate, £27.60 an hour. There is no legal right to a higher rate for overtime, so the multiplier comes from your contract.
Will I pay tax on a shift like this?
It depends on total pay for the year, not on the single shift. Income tax starts once annual pay passes £12,570, under gov.uk's Income Tax rates, and National Insurance starts at the same point. Turn on the take-home option above to see the estimate, which assumes the same pattern of work runs all year.
How is my pay worked out, line by line?
The breakdown table lists each line that feeds into the total: hours booked, any unpaid break taken off, basic pay at the hourly rate, and overtime at its own rate. Each row shows the working alongside the amount, so the final gross pay figure can be checked line by line rather than taken on trust from the headline total.
How do I work out hourly pay?
Multiply the hourly rate by the hours worked, after taking off any unpaid break, to get the basic pay. Overtime is worked out separately: multiply the rate by the overtime multiplier to get the overtime rate, then multiply by the overtime hours. Adding the basic pay and overtime pay together gives the gross pay for the period, before any tax is due.
Sources & Rate Verification
Rates verified against official statutory guidance on 6 September 2026.