Workplace Pension Calculator
Calculate your auto-enrolment contributions for 2025/26. See monthly employee and employer amounts, project your pot at retirement, and discover how salary sacrifice saves you NI.
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How to Use This Calculator
My Contributions tab
Enter your annual salary, employee contribution rate (default 5%), and employer contribution rate (default 3%). Toggle between qualifying earnings basis (only earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 are pensionable) and full salary basis. The calculator shows your monthly and annual contributions, tax relief, and how the two bases compare.
Pot Projection tab
See how your pension pot grows over time. Enter your current age, retirement age, current pot value, and assumptions for salary growth and investment returns. The calculator projects your pot year-by-year and compares with and without employer contributions, so you can see exactly how much your employer match is worth.
Salary Sacrifice tab
Calculate the NI savings from making pension contributions via salary sacrifice. Your salary is reduced on paper, saving you 8% employee NI and your employer 15% employer NI. If your employer passes on their NI saving, even more goes into your pension. The calculator shows exactly how much extra ends up in your pot.
Share your result
Every input is encoded in the URL. Click Share to send your exact scenario to a colleague, partner, or financial adviser.
The Formula
Workplace pension contributions are calculated as a percentage of pensionable earnings:
Employee Contribution = Pensionable Earnings × Employee Rate
Employer Contribution = Pensionable Earnings × Employer Rate
Total Annual Pension = Employee + Employer contributions
Tax Relief (basic rate) = Employee Contribution × 20%
Salary Sacrifice NI Saving:
Employee NI saved = Sacrifice Amount × 8% (on £12,570–£50,270)
Employer NI saved = Sacrifice Amount × 15% (from April 2025)
Pot Projection:
Pot(year N) = (Pot(N−1) + Annual Contributions) × (1 + Growth Rate)
The qualifying earnings basis means only the slice of your salary between £6,240 and £50,270 counts for pension contributions. On a £30,000 salary, that's £23,760 pensionable — not the full £30,000. Some employers use full salary or basic salary basis, which gives higher contributions.
Auto-enrolment minimum is 8% total (5% employee + 3% employer) on qualifying earnings. Many employers offer more generous schemes above this minimum.
Example
Sarah — Admin Assistant, 32, Birmingham, £28,000
Sarah earns £28,000 and her employer uses the auto-enrolment minimums: 5% employee and 3% employer on qualifying earnings basis.
My Contributions tab
Sarah's effective cost is only £870/yr after tax relief, but £1,741 goes into her pension. That's a 100% uplift from employer match and tax relief.
Salary Sacrifice comparison
If Sarah switches to salary sacrifice, she also saves NI:
If her employer passes on their £163 NI saving, Sarah's pension pot gets an extra £163/yr — money that would otherwise go to HMRC.