This page is for people searching cost of employing someone or how much does it cost to employ someone in the UK. Enter a salary below for the instant total employer cost, or pick a common salary for a full breakdown. For overheads or Employment Allowance too, use the full employer cost calculator.
Baseline cost for 2026/27: salary + employer NI (15% above £5,000) + minimum 3% workplace pension on qualifying earnings. Excludes overheads, recruitment and the £10,500 Employment Allowance. Estimates only.
Formula: salary + (salary − £5,000) × 15% NI + (qualifying earnings) × 3% pension. No overheads or Employment Allowance applied above.
| Salary | Employer NI | Pension (3%) | Total cost | % above salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £2,250 | £413 | £22,663 | +13.3% |
| £25,000 | £3,000 | £563 | £28,563 | +14.3% |
| £30,000 | £3,750 | £713 | £34,463 | +14.9% |
| £35,000 | £4,500 | £863 | £40,363 | +15.3% |
| £40,000 | £5,250 | £1,013 | £46,263 | +15.7% |
| £50,000 | £6,750 | £1,313 | £58,063 | +16.1% |
| £60,000 | £8,250 | £1,321 | £69,571 | +16.0% |
| £75,000 | £10,500 | £1,321 | £86,821 | +15.8% |
| £100,000 | £14,250 | £1,321 | £115,571 | +15.6% |
Employer NI: 15% above £5,000. Pension: 3% of qualifying earnings (£6,240–£50,270). No Employment Allowance applied.
A £30,000 salary costs considerably more than £30,000 to a UK employer in 2026/27.
| Cost component | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | £30,000 | £2,500 |
| Employer NI (15% × £25,000) | £3,750 | £313 |
| Pension (3% × £23,760 qualifying) | £713 | £59 |
| Total employer cost | £34,463 | £2,872 |
NI: 15% above £5,000 threshold (£30,000 − £5,000 = £25,000 × 15%). Pension: qualifying earnings £6,240–£30,000 = £23,760 × 3%. No Employment Allowance or overheads.
Open a salary page to get baseline statutory employer cost.
Check each component separately before looking at the all-in total.
Add overheads and allowance to convert baseline into hiring budget reality.
Need a salary not listed? Use the full employer cost calculator for any amount. Want NI only? Go to employer NI by salary. Planning a whole team? Use the payroll planner.
Best if you want a fast answer for a specific salary such as £30,000, £35,000 or £50,000.
Best if you need custom pension, overheads, hourly pay or Employment Allowance assumptions.
Best if your query is specifically about employer NI rather than total salary cost to employer.
For ranking pages to be useful, they need to answer the decision question, not just the formula. Use this framework when reviewing offers or headcount requests: baseline statutory cost first, then realistic overhead assumptions, then allowance eligibility.
Calculate salary + employer NI + minimum pension. This is the minimum compliant recurring cost before local policy or benefits.
Layer software, equipment, training and workspace. This is where “£35k salary” often becomes £43k+ total employer spend.
Compare against 2024/25 assumptions to quantify budget drift caused by the April 2025 NI rate and threshold changes.
Apply Employment Allowance where eligible. For smaller employers this can materially reduce the net NI increase.
Total employer cost = salary + employer NI + employer pension. Employer NI is 15% of earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold. Employer pension is 3% of qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 under auto-enrolment rules. No upper earnings limit applies to employer NI.
The employer NI rate rose from 13.8% to 15% and the secondary threshold dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 — adding up to £1,500 per employee per year for many employers. Employment Allowance rose from £5,000 to £10,500 (with the £100,000 eligibility cap removed) to partially offset costs for eligible small employers.
Eligible employers can claim up to £10,500 off their employer NI bill per year (2026/27). Most limited companies with at least one employee who is not a sole director qualify. This effectively reduces employer NI to zero for smaller employers up to a certain payroll size.
Beyond NI and pension, real employer costs include recruitment (typically £2,000–£5,000 per hire), training, equipment, workspace, and benefits such as health insurance or enhanced pension. The full calculator focuses on the statutory minimums — the guaranteed floor of what each employee costs.
The calculator covers the mandatory statutory costs every UK employer must pay. Optional and indirect costs vary by role and business — add them as overheads for a full picture.
| Cost | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | Mandatory | The contractual headline pay |
| Employer National Insurance | Mandatory | 15% on earnings above £5,000, no upper cap |
| Employer pension (auto-enrolment) | Mandatory | Minimum 3% of qualifying earnings (£6,240–£50,270) |
| Apprenticeship Levy | Mandatory if pay bill > £3m | 0.5% of the annual pay bill above £3 million |
| Recruitment | Optional / one-off | Job adverts and agency fees (often 10–20% of salary) |
| Equipment & software | Optional | Laptop, phone, licences (typically £900–£2,700/yr) |
| Training & bonuses | Optional | Development, commission, private healthcare |
| Workspace, management time & insurance | Indirect | Desk, utilities, supervision, employers' liability cover |
Mandatory on-costs alone add roughly 13–20% to gross salary. Optional and indirect costs are business-specific — model them as overheads in the full calculator.
Stop doing this by hand — Sage Payroll works out employer NI, pension auto-enrolment, statutory sick and maternity pay and files RTI to HMRC automatically for UK employers. Try Sage Payroll →
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Figures reviewed for the 2026/27 tax year (last updated July 2026). Source: GOV.UK.
Want the employee's take-home view? AfterTaxSalary.co.uk calculates net pay after income tax and employee NI for any UK salary.