Watch your wage land, second by second.
Hard Knock Life counts your take-home pay live while you work, after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension, student loan and the bus fare. Then it tells you, item by item, what your shift has bought you so far.
Still working to recoup the bus fare!
Two minutes to set up. Then just press go.
No spreadsheets, no payslip maths. Give it your numbers once and every shift after that is one tap.
Tell it your pay
Hourly rate or salary, your hours, any night or weekend premiums, your pension and student loan. We work out the tax and NI.
Pick how you got in
Bus, train, car or your own two feet. A paid commute starts the clock in the red, so you can see when you've actually started earning.
Watch it tick
Your take-home climbs every second. Each time it passes the price of something real, from a Freddo to a fridge freezer, you'll hear about it.
Your shift, narrated. Sometimes kindly.
Every time you can afford something new, the status line says so, in a voice that's sometimes formal, sometimes sarcastic and often punny. It never says the same thing twice in a row.
What does an hour of your life buy?
A quick taste using standard 2026/27 rates. The full app adds your pension, student loan, premiums and travel.
It knows your job isn't nine to five.
Forgot to clock in?
Set the real start time and your earnings, and every unlock, are backdated to the second.
Unsociable hours
Nights, Sundays, lates: add premiums as multipliers or extra £ an hour, by day and time, even past midnight.
Proper UK tax
2026/27 Income Tax for England, Wales, NI or Scotland, National Insurance, tax-code overrides and student loan plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and postgraduate.
Breaks that count, or don't
Unpaid break? The meter stops. Paid break? Enjoy every subsidised bite. Tap the clock to start and end one.
A log of every win
Every item, the time you hit it and the seconds it took. Bigger buys are tracked across shifts, in hours and days.
Private and offline
No account, no tracking. Your numbers live on your device. Install it to your home screen and it runs without signal.
Frequently asked
How much do I earn per second?
Divide your hourly take-home pay by 3,600. On the 2026/27 National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour, working 37.5 hours a week in England, that's roughly £10.96 an hour, or about 0.30p a second after Income Tax and National Insurance and before pension. Hard Knock Life works it out for your exact pay and shows it live.
Is it really free?
Yes. No sign-up, no subscription, no adverts in the app.
Where does my salary data go?
Nowhere. It's stored in your browser on your own device and never sent to us or anyone else. You can export it, move it or delete it in one tap. See the privacy page.
How accurate is the take-home figure?
It's a good estimate, not a payslip. We annualise your typical pay and apply the 2026/27 rates for Income Tax, National Insurance, student loans and your pension type. Real payroll runs period by period, so overtime, bonuses, emergency tax codes or starting mid-year will make your payslip differ.
Does it handle Scottish tax?
Yes. Choose Scotland and the six 2026/27 Scottish bands (starter 19% to top 48%) are used. An S-prefixed tax code switches it automatically.
Can I install it on my phone?
Yes. On iPhone, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen. On Android, Chrome or Edge, choose Install app. It opens straight to the live clock and works offline.
Where do the item prices come from?
A list of about 270 typical UK consumer prices, from a Freddo to a fridge freezer, including takeaways, petrol, haircuts and household bills. They're a rough guide. Your local shop may disagree.
It's a hard knock life. At least know what it's paying.
Set up in about two minutes. Watch your next shift pay off, one Freddo at a time.