The Salary Calculator

New design for The Salary Calculator

by Admin

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trialling a new design for the many options that are available on The Salary Calculator. Some of you may have already seen this new design as part of the trial. Today, I have rolled out this new options design to all visitors, so you will all now see the options laid out in a new manner, which I hope you will find easier to use.

As more and more options have been added to the calculator, like Tax Codes, Pensions, Childcare Vouchers and Overtime, I felt that the old interface was getting more and more complicated. Since most of the options available were not required for simple salary calculations, it seemed that all the options on display might be confusing for people who just wanted a simple calculation. However, I know from the feedback I get that many visitors find the advanced options very useful when performing their calculations. To try to make the calculator less daunting, while still making advanced options available to those that want to use them, I have replaced the old design (where all options were displayed at once) with a tabbed interface that lets you choose the options you want to edit without spending time on those that are not relevant. Some mandatory or simple options are outside the additional options, as is the choice of tax year.

To see the new design, check out The Salary Calculator. Please let me know what you think in the comments below – did you find this design easier to use?

Tags: The Salary Calculator

12 Comments to New design for The Salary Calculator

1. 

   HI i am trying to use the new addition table that you specify bonuses etc in and it doesnt work, nothing happens when i click in/on it and i cannot see or enter any information into the box. hope this is rectified soon

   Thanks

   James
James Morris on November 1st, 2012
2. 

   Hi James,

   Thanks for letting me know! I’ve had a few people email me about this, but it only seems to be a problem on some computers or in some browsers. I’m working on a solution which I hope to have ready tomorrow. To everyone who is having the same problem, thanks for your patience!
admin on November 1st, 2012
3. 

   Hi, I can confirm that the new ‘table’ functions do not work, as reported by James.

   Thanks for the tool though!
Anonymous on November 1st, 2012
4. 

   I have made some changes which I hope will get this working for most people – let me know if it is still giving you problems!
admin on November 2nd, 2012
5. 

   please explain how you tax the salary all lets say i got 2175.76 this month 810L code ….. 8100 divided by 52 week /weeks in 1 year/ 156 per week WHAT we do when is 5 weeks month ??? When we use the % for NIN before we deduct that non taxable amount or after ? Same question about tax % – before or after we deduct nin tax ?
amira on November 8th, 2012
6. 

   Hi Amira,

   On the page About The Salary Calculator, you will find most of the information you are looking for. To answer your question about monthly salary, most employers who are paying monthly will divide the annual salary, and the annual tax free allowance, by 12 – not by 52. This spreads the allowance (£8,105 for the 810L tax code) evenly throughout the months. The same is true for National Insurance thresholds.

   As the About page explains, tax is calculated on income above the tax-free personal allowance, before National Insurance deductions. Similarly, National Insurance is calculated on gross (i.e. pre-tax) income over the National Insurance thresholds.

   I hope this helps!
admin on November 9th, 2012
7. 

   Hi

   Your new pro rata table is useful 🙂

   However, I do have a question and I’m slightly confused. Forgive me, maths isn’t my strong point!

   I work for a clerical bank in the NHS and I get paid weekly. The annual salary is a pittance of £14864, my hourly rate is £7.6017 and my gross salary per week is 228.04 and I get an additional 28.13 per week as holiday pay (I don’t get sick pay).

   Each week they deduct 48.60 for PAYE, National Insurance 11.13 and Pension 12.81. My take home is 183.63.

   According to your pro rata calculator I should take home 204.22, even with the pension deduction it would be more than 183.63.

   So am I being mucked about on tax? They are currently giving me a tax rebate each week when I worked for them on the nurse bank (same organisation). They’ve been giving me this money for months.

   The reason I’m querying it is I am going for an interview for a job with a starting salary of £18868 for 21 hours a week. On your calculator that works out at 196.76 a week which doesn’t seem worth my while.

   Have I got this right?

   I am under 65 and married.

   Many thanks
   Tracey
Tracey on November 10th, 2012
8. 

   Sorry, I forgot to add I’m on the 810L cumul. tax code. I saw a previous comment about that.
Tracey on November 10th, 2012
9. 

   Hi Tracey,

   I’m glad you like the pro-rata tool!

   It sounds like you have two questions:

   Are you paying the right amount of tax in your current job?
   Is this new job a better deal?

   To try to help with the first one – you don’t mention whether your current job full-time or part-time, but it sounds like you are currently on 30 hours per week? This, plus your holiday pay, suggests that your annual gross salary is £13,320, with a 5% pension contribution. Putting this into the calculator, I see that the weekly tax should be just £17.50. Your tax deduction of £48.60 suggests that they are applying the basic 20% tax rate to all your income, without taking into account your tax-free personal allowance. Enter a tax code of BR to see the calculator work this out. However, there could be a legitimate reason for this – you mentioned a previous job, and a tax rebate – if you used all of your personal allowance on the previous job, you would have to pay 20% on everything you earn from this job. Or possibly your employer is taxing the new job at the full rate but refunding tax from the previous job, cancelling some of it out. In either case, your line manager or HR department should be able to explain what is going on.

   With the potential new job, it’s not clear whether £18,868 is the full-time salary or the salary for 21 hours a week. If it is the full-time salary, then the gross salary for 21 hours would be £10,566 – less than the £13,320 you’re getting now (although you’d also be working fewer hours). If it’s the salary for 21 hours a week, then the gross would obviously be £18,868 – more than you’re earning now. Bear in mind when you’re considering this that a new employer would be told of your tax status by your current employer – so if it is correct that you are paying 20% on all earnings, the same would happen at the new employer too. Again, enter a tax code of BR to see the calculator work this out.

   I hope this makes some sense!
admin on November 10th, 2012
10. 

    Hi

    Yes, those were the questions I was asking.

    The £18868 for the new job is the full-time salary based on 35 hours per week, the job would actually be 21 hours (part-time)

    In my current post their full-time hours are 37.5 per week and yes I am working 30 hours over 4 days, part-time. The problem is I am classed as a temp because I work for a clerical bank supplying staff to admin departments, so I am working on ‘assignments’ to wards and departments on temporary contracts.

    I started on the clerical bank in 2010, but I started working with their nursing bank back in 2001, so I reached a salary of £16543 (although it’s the same bank when I moved to admin & clerical they put me down at the bottom of band 2 again!) They’re giving me a weekly rebate based on the nurse bank yearly salary. It’s even harder to describe what hours I was working in the nursing side because the work was casual.

    Are you therefore saying they’re taking the rebate as well? I get a separate wage slip for that, it’s not listed on the other slip.

    So maybe the new job with the higher annual salary isn’t worth it, then 🙁
Tracey on November 10th, 2012
11. 

    Just one more question, though: how come when I try to work out the take home in the hourly calculator does it work out that I take home more than the pro rata calculator?
Tracey on November 10th, 2012
12. 

    Hi Tracey,

    What I was saying is that, judging by the figures you gave me, you appear to be paying tax on everything you earn – i.e., your tax-free personal allowance is not being considered. However, your employer is giving you some tax back with this separate rebate – perhaps this is cancelling out the additional tax. If you speak to your payroll or HR department they should be able to explain to you the deductions and the rebate.

    When I compare your figures in the hourly calculator with those in the pro-rata calculator, the pro-rata calculator gives a slightly higher income. The reason for this is rather complicated, to do with how the calculator does all the working out – but in short, the calculator works on the basis of 52 weeks in the year, your employer has worked out your hourly wage based on about 52.14 weeks in the year (to account for the extra day or two in the year). This makes the hourly wage a few pennies different, which makes the total income slightly different.
admin on November 11th, 2012

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