Payroll in United Kingdom: employer costs, taxes & compliance (2026)

Running payroll in the United Kingdom means doing several things every month. You calculate gross pay, deduct income tax and employee social security contributions at source, add your own employer contributions on top, and send the whole picture to HMRC before or on payday. Employees expect a payslip that shows every line. There is no annual catch-up or balancing payment, so getting each cycle right matters from day one.

This guide covers what that costs you as an employer, how the pay cycle works in practice, what leave and termination rules mean for your payroll runs, and when it makes sense to hand the whole thing to a specialist. The tables on this page carry the exact rates and statutory figures.

The gap between what an employee takes home and what you actually spend is wider than the gross salary figure suggests. On top of gross pay, you carry employer social security contributions, which add roughly a seventh to your wage bill. Think of it this way: if you agree a salary, your real monthly outlay is noticeably higher than that number alone. The table below shows the exact employer contribution rate.

The total tax wedge, meaning the combined bite of income tax, employee contributions, and employer contributions measured against total labour cost, sits at around a third of that total cost. In plain terms, for every pound of value you pay for labour, about a third goes to the state between you and the employee. That is a useful number to keep in mind when budgeting headcount.

The standard payroll cycle in the UK is monthly, so you run one calculation per employee per month. There is no statutory thirteenth-month salary, which simplifies your annual calendar considerably. You do need to make sure nobody falls below the minimum wage floor, which works out to roughly £1,981 per month at current rates. If you have part-time or variable-hours workers, check the hourly equivalent each cycle rather than relying on a fixed monthly figure.

Employees are entitled to 28 days of paid annual leave per year, and that accrues from day one of employment. When someone leaves, any unused leave gets paid out as part of their final paycheck, so your offboarding calculation is rarely just their last month's salary. There are also 8 public holidays to account for in your leave calendar. On termination, statutory notice runs just over five weeks and severance sits around four weeks of pay, both of which become payroll items you need to process and record accurately.

If you do not already have a UK legal entity, you cannot run payroll here on your own, and setting one up takes time and ongoing admin. Even with an entity in place, keeping up with contribution rate changes, payslip requirements, and reporting obligations is a steady workload. A global payroll provider or employer of record handles the filings, absorbs the rate updates, and gives your employees a compliant local payroll from day one. It is often the faster and lower-risk path, especially for smaller headcounts or a first hire in the country.