Working Fewer Hours Calculator: See What You'd Take Home
Compare your current pay with reduced hours and see the effect on your salary, monthly take-home pay and the value of the extra time you gain.
Your pay if you reduce your hours
Compare what you earn now with your estimated pay on fewer hours.
while giving up £600 of take-home pay per month
The value of the time you gain
Compare the take-home pay you give up with the extra time you get back.
Before-tax and after-tax pay
Compare what you earn before deductions with what you are estimated to keep after tax, both now and after reducing your hours.
After tax is your estimated take-home pay after Income Tax, National Insurance and any pension or student loan deductions selected above.
Why your take-home pay may fall by less than your salary
Your working hours reduce by 20.0%Your gross salary reduces by 20.0%, while your take-home pay reduces by 18.2%.
Why the take-home reduction can be smallerSome of the salary you give up would have gone to Income Tax, National Insurance or other deductions anyway. Because of that, losing 20% of your gross salary does not always mean losing 20% of the money that reaches your bank account.
Calculation assumptionsSee how this estimate is calculatedDetails
- Your salary is reduced in direct proportion to your contracted weekly hours.
- The calculation assumes 52 paid weeks per year.
- The same pension method and employee contribution percentage are applied before and after reducing your hours.
- The same student loan and Postgraduate Loan settings are used in both scenarios.
- If you enter a tax code, the same code is applied to both the current and reduced-hours estimates.
- Take-home pay uses the existing WorkSmartMoney 2026/27 PAYE calculation.
- This does not model an employer agreeing to keep your full salary while you work fewer hours.
- Results are estimates and are not personal financial advice.
What happens to your pay when you work fewer hours?
Reducing your hours usually means a lower gross salary, but the amount you lose from your bank account can be smaller than the headline pay cut. That is because Income Tax, National Insurance and some other deductions can fall when your earnings fall.
How is reduced-hours salary calculated?
A reduced-hours salary is normally calculated pro rata. Divide your new weekly hours by your current weekly hours and multiply your salary by that figure. Moving from 37.5 hours to 30 hours means working 80% of your previous hours, so a £50,000 salary would become £40,000 before tax.
Does working 20% fewer hours mean 20% less take-home pay?
Not necessarily. Your gross salary may fall by 20%, but your take-home pay can fall by a smaller percentage because part of the salary you give up would otherwise have been deducted through PAYE. That is why this calculator shows both the before-tax and after-tax figures.
What if I move from 5 days to 4 days a week?
If each working day is the same length, moving from five days to four is usually an 80% working pattern, so the 4-day-week salary impact is often a 20% gross pay reduction. The exact effect on your take-home pay depends on your salary and deductions. Our working 4 days a week salary guide goes into this in more detail.
What should I check before reducing my hours?
Look beyond salary alone. Pension contributions, annual leave, bonuses, overtime and other benefits can all be affected by a change in contracted hours. Student loan repayments and a non-standard PAYE tax code can also change the result, which is why you can add those details to the calculator.
Estimates use WorkSmartMoney's 2026/27 calculator assumptions and are for general information only. Actual payslips can differ because of payroll timing, tax-code operation, employer-specific benefits and other deductions.