About Public Sector Calculators

Public Sector Calculators helps people in UK public sector roles explore common pay and leave scenarios before they speak to HR, payroll or a union. We build role-based calculators for each job title, not one generic form, so a Staff Nurse, Classroom Teacher or Council Social Worker each gets copy, datasets and examples matched to their employer type.

Calculator types include pay progression, promotion timing, part-time and reduced hours, allowances, take-home pay, annual leave, sick pay, maternity and paternity, career breaks, and continuing professional development (CPD). Each page includes a contextual guide, an example scenario table and frequently asked questions in normal HTML at build time, not only a JavaScript widget.

Outputs are illustrative. They support planning and comparison; they are not legal, regulatory, payroll or pension advice.

The site covers NHS and social care, schools and further education, local government, civil service, police, fire, transport bodies, higher education, housing associations and other public sector employers. Use header search to find your job title and organisation, then open calculators from your role landing page or a category hub such as career and pay or maternity and paternity.

Cross-calculator journeys on planning tools (for example the part-time planning journey) link several steps in order: FTE and gross pay, allowances, leave, then take-home pay, with band and hours saved in your browser between steps.

Longer background reading lives in our guides hub: AfC progression, teachers’ pay, FTE, sick pay, maternity frameworks and more.

Inputs and results run in your browser. We do not require an account and we do not store your salary on our servers. Optional band, years in band and FTE can be saved in local browser storage when you use Continue planning on the same role.

Each calculator page shows assumptions, data sources and confidence where relevant. Live results need JavaScript; guides, FAQs and example tables are visible without it. See our privacy policy for cookies, analytics and advertising.

Pay scales, leave rules, sick pay tiers and maternity terms are stored as structured JSON datasets versioned in this project and reviewed periodically. The homepage shows the latest dataset review date. Full official references are on our data sources page.

Where national frameworks differ by employer, contract or academisation, we label outputs as illustrative and explain limits on each page. Take-home calculators use the stated tax year (currently 2026/27 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Scotland uses different income tax bands.

If a figure matters for a real decision, check your contract, employer HR guidance, regulator rules or union documentation. Do not rely on this site alone.

Role calculators (~1,500 pages) cover one job title and one scenario each, with role-tailored guides and FAQs. Category hubs (career pay, maternity, sick pay, and so on) help you browse by topic. Planning tools on planning tools combine cross-role journeys (part-time planning) or standalone estimators (pay award, maternity timeline, redundancy).

Guides are longer articles on frameworks (AfC bands, teachers’ pay, FTE, NJC, Civil Service remit) with links back to role calculators. They are for reading and context; calculators are for trying numbers.

We write in UK English with clear, neutral explanations. Guides explain what inputs mean, what the model includes and what it deliberately omits (tax on back pay, pension tier changes, local allowances, and so on). We avoid false certainty and flag employer-specific variation.

We do not sell financial products, recommend leaving or staying in a role, or provide individual casework. For employment disputes, capability, discrimination or pension advice, use Acas, your union, Citizens Advice or a qualified adviser.

Site updates are recorded on the changelog. When you spot an error, contact us with the page URL and your inputs; data corrections are prioritised.

Public Sector Calculators is independent. We are not affiliated with HM Government, the NHS, local authorities, schools, police forces, unions or any individual employer. Do not present our illustrations as official employer guidance.

Questions or corrections: ryan@retirementcalculators.uk