Army Corporal Salary 2026/27: OR-4 Take-Home
Corporal is the first NCO rank above Lance Corporal. On the AFPRB pay scales in force from 1 April 2026, an OR-4 is paid £40,989 to £43,826 on trade supplement 1 and up to £48,497 on trade supplement 4. Those figures already include X-Factor, and reflect the 3.6% award the Government accepted in full on 9 June 2026, backdated to 1 April 2026.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £42,660
- Typical range
- £40,989–£48,497
- Take-home at median
- £34,235 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 9% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you in the top 44% of UK earners.
See exact take-home for £42,660 →
The AFPRB scales after the 3.6% award, with the four trade supplements for Other Ranks and take-home on a non-contributory pension: Armed forces pay scales 2026/27, every rank →
What influences army corporal pay
Trade supplement matters as much as rank. The same OR-4 increment level pays £40,989 on supplement 1 and £44,322 on supplement 4, because MOD allocates a supplement to each trade through job evaluation. Rank alone does not fix the salary.
X-Factor is already inside these figures. The AFPRB publishes its salary tables including X-Factor, the pensionable addition that recognises the conditions of Service life, so it should not be added on top of a published rate - doing so overstates gross pay by around a seventh.
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 is non-contributory: members pay 0% and the scheme is funded from the public purse. That is unusual among public service schemes and means gross pay converts to take-home without a pension deduction, unlike the NHS, Teachers or Civil Service arrangements.
Career progression
- OR-2, level 1: £27,282 on trade supplement 1.
- OR-2, level 10 / OR-3, level 3: £38,553 on supplement 1.
- OR-4 (Corporal), level 1: £40,989 on supplement 1, £44,322 on supplement 4.
- OR-4, level 6: £43,826 on supplement 1, £48,497 on supplement 4.
- OR-6 (Sergeant), level 1: £46,022 on supplement 1.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for an Army Corporal?
- On £42,660, the level 4 rate on trade supplement 1, take-home is about £34,235 a year or £2,853 a month after £6,018 Income Tax and £2,407 National Insurance. There is no pension deduction, because the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 is non-contributory.
- Is X-Factor added on top of these figures?
- No, and this is easy to get wrong. The AFPRB publishes its salary tables including X-Factor, so a rate taken from Appendix 1 of its report is already the full pensionable salary. Adding X-Factor again overstates pay by around a seventh.
- Is the AFPS 2015 pension worth it?
- It costs nothing to hold, which makes the question unusual. Members pay 0% and the scheme is funded from the public purse, so the whole of the defined-benefit accrual is on top of gross pay rather than paid for out of it. Every other large public service scheme - NHS, Teachers, Civil Service alpha, police, fire - takes a contribution.