Pay rise calculator. What you actually keep.

Scotland's six bands make "is this rise worth it?" genuinely non-obvious — a rise that crosses £43,663 is taxed at 42% + 8% NI. Compare any two salaries side by side.

Reading the result

The keep-rate on a rise is your marginal position, not your average one. In Scotland for 2026/27: a rise landing inside the Basic band keeps ~72p in the pound (20% tax + 8% NI); inside Intermediate ~71p; crossing into Higher at £43,663 drops it to 50p (42% + 8%); above £50,270 NI falls to 2%, so Higher-band income keeps 56p; between £100,000 and £125,140 the Personal Allowance taper pushes the effective rate to 67.5%, keeping just 32.5p. A rise never leaves you worse off overall — but this is why two rises of the same size can feel very different.