Kitchen porter salary UK in 2026: what KPs earn at Wetherspoons, Greene King and beyond, the minimum wage floor, tronc, and real take-home after tax.
If you wash pots, prep veg and keep a kitchen running, the job title on your contract is probably kitchen porter, and the pay question is usually the same one: what actually lands in my account after the deductions come out.
The honest answer is that a kitchen porter salary UK figure has two parts that behave differently. There is your hourly wage, which runs through the normal tax machine, and there is tronc, the pooled tips some venues share with the kitchen, which is taxed in its own way. This guide sets out what KPs really earn in 2026, how the minimum wage sets the floor, and exactly what you keep once tax and National Insurance are done.
Most kitchen porter roles pay at or a little above the National Living Wage, so on a full-time week you are looking at roughly £23,000 to £26,500 a year gross, of which you keep about £20,000 to £22,500 after income tax and National Insurance in the 2026/27 tax year. Tronc, where a venue runs one, sits on top of that.
The exact number depends on two things: your hours and your rate. Both move around a lot in hospitality, so the worked examples below cover the common cases rather than one headline figure.
From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for everyone aged 21 and over. That is the legal minimum, so any kitchen porter aged 21 or over must be paid at least this. It matters because KP roles have always clustered right at the legal floor, so the minimum wage is not just a safety net here, it is often the actual rate.
Younger workers have lower legal minimums. For 18 to 20 year olds it is £10.85 an hour, and for under-18s and first-year apprentices it is £8.00. If you see an old job advert quoting £11 or £11.50 an hour for a KP, that figure is now below the adult minimum and out of date.
Branded chains vary around that floor. A Wetherspoons, Greene King or Mitchells and Butlers kitchen might pay the legal minimum for a standard daytime KP, then add 50p to a pound an hour for late shifts, weekend work or being a key holder. The base rate is the predictable part, so that is where the worked example starts.
Take a KP aged 21 or over on the National Living Wage, working a full 40-hour week. That is £508.40 a week, or about £26,437 a year gross.
Here is how the deductions land for 2026/27, on the standard tax code 1257L:
Now the same rate on a 35-hour week, which is common for a KP who is not doing full-time hours. That is £444.85 a week, or about £23,132 a year gross. The tax and National Insurance scale down with it, and you land on a take-home of roughly £1,681 a month from base pay. Fewer hours means you keep a slightly higher share of each pound, because more of your pay sits under the thresholds.
If your venue pays a little above the floor, the picture shifts a bit. A KP on £13.50 an hour over 40 hours earns about £28,080 a year gross, and takes home close to £1,977 a month once tax and National Insurance come out. So each extra pound on the hourly rate is worth about 72p in your pocket once you are over the thresholds, which is why chasing a 50p or £1 rise matters more than most people assume.
Tronc, where it exists, is added on top of all of these figures, and because of how it is taxed it can be worth more per pound than the wage itself.
For years, tips in hospitality went mostly to front-of-house. That has shifted. Under the rules that came in across 2024 and 2025, employers cannot keep tips, and many venues now include the kitchen in the tronc, the pooled tips arrangement.
The tax treatment is the useful bit. Tronc is still income, so income tax applies. But when a proper troncmaster runs the scheme, independently of the employer, the tips are usually free of National Insurance. That is worth real money. A pound of normal wages costs you 20p in tax and 8p in NI once you are over the thresholds, so you keep 72p. A pound of tronc costs you only the 20p in tax, so you keep 80p.
So two KPs on the same £12.71 base can take home noticeably different amounts if one works in a busy gastropub with a well-run tronc and the other in a venue with no tips at all. When you are comparing kitchen porter jobs, ask whether the kitchen is in the tronc, not just what the hourly rate is.
A few things trip KPs up more than most workers, because hospitality shifts are irregular and turnover is high.
You started recently and you are on an emergency code. If you changed venues and your new employer has not got your P45, you might be on 1257L W1 or 1257L M1. That often means you overpay tax in the first month or two. It usually corrects itself, and you can read how the emergency tax refund works if it happens to you.
Your hours swing week to week. Payroll calculates tax on a cumulative basis across the year, so a big week followed by a quiet week evens out. If one heavy week pushed you into paying more tax than feels right, a lighter week usually gives some of it back automatically.
You have a second job. Plenty of KPs pick up shifts across two venues. Your second job is normally taxed on a BR code, which takes 20% off everything with no personal allowance, because the allowance is already used on the first job. That is correct in most cases, not a mistake, but it does mean the second job feels more heavily taxed.
What changed: the legal floor. The National Living Wage climbed to £12.71 an hour for those 21 and over from April 2026, which pulled up the whole base for KP roles. Any advert quoting a rate below that for an adult is now unlawful, so the rate itself is the single biggest thing to check.
The tips rules also settled in. With employers barred from keeping tips and more kitchens brought into the tronc, a KP in a tipping venue can now expect a genuine share, taxed but often free of National Insurance.
What did not change: the tax maths. The personal allowance is still £12,570, the basic rate is still 20%, and employee National Insurance is still 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270. These are frozen through to April 2028. So the deductions on a kitchen porter salary this year are the same shape as last year, only the headline hourly rate moved up.
If you want to see exactly what your kitchen porter pay works out to at your real hours, rate and tax code, the NetPay app does the calculation for you, including National Insurance, pension and any tronc on top. Free to download.
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Most kitchen porter roles pay at or just above the National Living Wage, which is £12.71 an hour from April 2026. On a 40-hour week that is about £26,437 a year gross, or roughly £1,880 a month take-home after income tax and National Insurance in 2026/27. Bigger chains sometimes add 50p to a pound an hour for late shifts or experience.
Anything meaningfully above the £12.71 legal floor is a good kitchen porter salary. A KP earning £13.50 to £14 an hour, plus a share of tronc in a venue that runs one, is doing well for the role. Head KP or shift-lead positions can push higher, but the base for most jobs sits close to the minimum wage.
It depends on the venue. Many kitchens are now included in the tronc, the pooled tips arrangement, so a KP can get a share alongside front-of-house staff. Tronc is taxed as income but is often free of National Insurance when a proper troncmaster runs it, which means you keep a little more of each pound than you would on normal wages.
Yes, if you are 21 or over, £12.71 an hour is exactly the legal minimum from April 2026, so it is legal but it is the floor, not a bonus. For workers aged 18 to 20 the minimum is £10.85, and for under-18s and first-year apprentices it is £8.00. If you are 21 or over and paid under £12.71, your employer is underpaying you.
Want to see your actual take-home pay?
NetPay UK works out your real net pay after tax, NI, pension and salary sacrifice, for hourly, shift and variable-income workers. Free to download.
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A note on financial advice: NetPay UK calculates take-home pay based on official HMRC tax rules. This article reflects rules in force at the time of publication (1 July 2026). Tax rules change. For complex situations, consult a qualified UK accountant or visit gov.uk/income-tax.
