Military pay vs civilian salary calculator
What's your service actually worth?
Your payslip only shows part of what you earn. Depending on your circumstances, tax-free allowances, pension, and subsidised housing can add real value on top. A civilian offer has to clear your full total to leave you no worse off.
Free to use · Built by veterans · Takes two minutes
A Corporal, six years in, looks like
Your total military package
£4,290/mo
Civilian salary needed to match
£4,565/mo
Run your own numbers below
Tell us about your service
Takes two minutes. The number at the end tends to be surprising.
Reflects your trade group (e.g. Trade Group 5 = Supp 2). Check your payslip if unsure.
Seniority step within OR-4. Higher numbers = more time at rank.
Which AFPS scheme are you enrolled in?
Drag to adjust (0–40 years)
For housing and London weighting calculations
Where you currently live — affects housing benefit calculation
Spouse, children, or other dependents
Up to £3,400/child/year for before & after school care (ages 4–11). This benefit disappears when you leave.
How military pay compares
How military pay compares to a civilian salary
Base pay is the number on your payslip. It is not the number that matters when you are weighing up a civilian job.
Military pay often comes wrapped in things a civilian salary has to buy separately. Depending on your circumstances, accommodation and food can be subsidised, several allowances are tax-free, and the pension is generous with little or nothing coming out of your own pocket. A pound of tax-free allowance is worth more than a pound of taxable salary.
To match your military package, a civilian employer has to pay you enough to cover all of it, then enough on top to cover the tax you will now pay on the lot. That is why the honest comparison is rarely the one people expect.
Why a bigger salary can still be a pay cut
A civilian offer of £45,000 can leave you worse off than a military package that looked smaller on paper. The reason is tax, and the things you stop getting for free.
On the outside, your whole income is taxable. Any subsidised accommodation goes. Any childcare support goes. The pension you barely paid into is replaced by one you fund yourself.
Run your numbers before you accept anything. The figure the calculator gives you is the salary a civilian job needs to hit before you are genuinely ahead, not the point where you break even on base pay alone.
£45,000
An offer that reads like a raise, and can still be a pay cut once tax and lost benefits are counted.
What the X-Factor is, and what it adds
The X-Factor is a 14.5% supplement on the basic pay of regular personnel. It exists because military service carries demands civilian jobs do not: deployment at short notice, limits on resigning, time away from family, and moving where you are posted.
It is already built into your published salary, so you may never have seen it as a separate line. When you leave, it goes. A civilian role paying your headline military salary is paying you 14.5% less for the work itself.
14.5%
Added to the basic pay of regular personnel, and gone the day you leave.
What your AFPS pension is really worth
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme is one of the most valuable parts of your package, and one of the easiest to undercount, because you contribute little or nothing to it.
A civilian pension is funded largely by you. To match what AFPS builds up on your behalf, a civilian employer would need to pay a contribution most do not offer, or you would need to divert a chunk of your own salary to close the gap.
If you are on AFPS 15, your calculation looks different from someone on an earlier scheme. The calculator accounts for which scheme you are enrolled in.
~£0
What most serving personnel contribute to a pension a civilian would fund largely themselves.
The disappearing extras
The allowances that disappear when you leave
Some of the most valuable parts of military pay are the ones you stop noticing, and the ones that can vanish the day you sign off. Which of these you get depends on your circumstances:
| Allowance | Value while serving | After you leave |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (SFA / SLA) | Priced well below market rent | You pay the market rate |
| Wraparound childcare (WAC) | Up to £3,400 per child a year | Ends |
| Subsidised food | Dining facility below civilian cost | You cover it yourself |
| Medical and dental | Provided in service | Your cost, or partly an employer's |
Whichever of these you actually get, none of them show up on your payslip as income. They are still money, so the calculator puts a figure on the ones that apply to you and lets you compare like for like.
Rank matters, and so does time served
Two people at the same rank can be worth very different amounts. Pay level, supplement level, years of service, pension scheme, dependants, and where you are based all move the number.
Rather than trust a rank average you found online, put your own details in and see your figure.
£25,952
A Private with the X-Factor included, near the bottom of the pay spine.
£27,145
The same Private at the top of the spine, before promotion.
The next step
The number is the easy part. Knowing where to earn it is the rest.
Redeployable translates your service into the skills civilian employers screen for, then shows you where those skills are in demand and what they command. The comparison number tells you the floor. We help you find the roles that clear it.
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