# JobLabs

> UK careers content + free interactive tools + open datasets, written by Alex (12-year UK recruiter, 40,000+ CVs reviewed). Recruiter-calibrated salary benchmarks, employment law guides, statutory rates references, and citation-worthy datasets — all CC BY 4.0 where applicable.

JobLabs is the UK careers reference site for journalists, HR teams, recruiters, payroll software, and job seekers. Authoritative because every figure comes from real placements cross-checked against gov.uk, ACAS, EHRC, HMRC, and the major UK salary surveys (Robert Walters, Hays, Reed, ONS earnings data). Every page authored or reviewed by Alex, with credentials at /authors/alex/.

## Master 2026 reference guides

- [UK Employment Law Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-employment-law-guide-2026/): Plain-English UK employment law — Equality Act, ERA 1996, employer rules, employee rights, dismissal, redundancy, discrimination
- [UK Salary Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-salary-guide-2026/): UK pay benchmarks across 30 roles, negotiation playbooks, take-home pay, tax-efficient structuring
- [UK Tax Guide 2026/27](https://joblabs.ai/uk-tax-guide-2026-27/): Income tax bands, NI, Marriage Allowance, salary sacrifice, 60% trap, Scottish bands
- [UK CV Format Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-cv-format-2026/): UK CV layout, ATS-readable formatting, what to include, what to cut
- [UK Interview Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-interview-guide-2026/): UK interview formats, behavioural questions, scoring rubrics, salary expectations questions
- [UK Redundancy Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-redundancy-guide-2026/): Process, statutory pay, ex-gratia structuring, settlement agreements, £30k tax-free threshold
- [UK Notice Period Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-notice-period-guide-2026/): Statutory + contractual notice, garden leave, PILON, sickness, holiday during notice
- [UK Maternity Leave Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-maternity-leave-guide-2026/): SMP, KIT days, return-to-work rights, redundancy protections, shared parental leave
- [UK Sick Leave Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-sick-leave-guide-2026/): SSP, fit notes, long-term sickness, disability protections, dismissal during sickness
- [UK Apprenticeship Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-apprenticeship-guide-2026/): 6 levels (L2-L7), wages, top employers, apprenticeship vs university
- [UK Statutory Rates 2026/27](https://joblabs.ai/uk-statutory-rates-2026-27/): Every UK statutory rate, threshold and band — human-readable reference
- [UK LinkedIn Profile Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-linkedin-profile-guide-2026/): Headline, About, Open to Work, recruiter messaging, content strategy
- [UK Career Change Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-career-change-guide-2026/): Transition framework, transferable skills, financial planning, retraining
- [UK Salary Negotiation Guide 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-salary-negotiation-guide-2026/): When and how to negotiate, scripts for every situation, handling pushback
- [UK Job Search Statistics 2026](https://joblabs.ai/uk-job-search-statistics-2026/): UK 2026 hiring data — time-to-hire, response rates by sector, ATS conversion

## Open datasets (CC BY 4.0)

- [UK Salaries 2026 dataset](https://joblabs.ai/data/uk-salaries-2026/): 30 UK roles × 8 cities × 4 seniority levels — JSON + CSV. Built from Reed.co.uk, Indeed UK, LinkedIn Talent Insights, Robert Walters, Hays, ONS earnings data, cross-referenced against placements
- [UK Statutory Rates 2026/27 dataset](https://joblabs.ai/data/uk-statutory-rates-2026-27/): Every UK statutory rate, threshold, band — JSON + CSV — for payroll software, accountants, journalists
- [Open data hub](https://joblabs.ai/data/): All citable datasets under CC BY 4.0

## Free interactive tools

- [UK Take-Home Pay Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-take-home-pay-calculator/): Net pay after income tax, NI, pension contributions, student loan, Scottish bands
- [UK Redundancy Pay Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-redundancy-pay-calculator/): Statutory + enhanced + age multiplier, applies the £700/week cap
- [UK Notice Period Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-notice-period-calculator/): Statutory + contractual notice with sickness and holiday handling
- [UK Bonus Tax Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-bonus-tax-calculator/): With 60% effective trap detection between £100k–£125,140
- [UK Pay Rise Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-pay-rise-calculator/): Recruiter-calibrated bands by industry and tenure
- [Offer Comparison Tool](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/offer-comparison/): Side-by-side total-comp comparison (base + bonus + equity + pension)
- [Cover Letter Generator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/cover-letter-generator/): Recruiter-tested templates, no signup
- [CV Keyword Match Score](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/cv-keyword-match-score/): ATS keyword overlap scorer
- [Career Change Difficulty Score](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/career-change-difficulty-score/): From-to transition difficulty rating
- [Job Description Analyzer](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/job-description-analyzer/): Decode JD red flags + hidden requirements
- [UK Statutory Paternity Pay Calculator](https://joblabs.ai/free-tools/uk-statutory-paternity-pay-calculator/): SPP eligibility and weekly amount

## Topical hubs (programmatic content clusters)

- [UK salaries by role](https://joblabs.ai/salary/): 30 UK role salary pages with London premium, skill bumps, top employers
- [UK salaries by seniority](https://joblabs.ai/salary-by-level/): Junior/mid/senior/lead bands for 30 roles with progression timelines
- [UK Rights & Guides master hub](https://joblabs.ai/uk-rights-and-guides/): All 215+ UK careers guides organised by cluster
- [UK employer rules](https://joblabs.ai/uk-employer-rules/): "Can my employer..." — what UK employers can and cannot do
- [UK workplace issues](https://joblabs.ai/uk-workplace-issues/): Action playbooks for grievances, settlements, tribunal, whistleblowing
- [UK family rights](https://joblabs.ai/uk-family-rights/): Pregnancy, maternity, paternity, adoption, neonatal, bereavement, miscarriage
- [UK disability rights](https://joblabs.ai/uk-disability-rights/): Equality Act, reasonable adjustments, mental health, neurodiversity, Access to Work
- [UK pension at work](https://joblabs.ai/uk-pension-at-work/): Auto-enrolment, salary sacrifice, higher-rate relief, transfers, retirement access
- [UK tax reliefs](https://joblabs.ai/uk-tax-reliefs/): Marriage Allowance, working from home, mileage, professional fees, EV cars
- [UK contract types](https://joblabs.ai/uk-contract-types/): Employee vs worker vs self-employed, IR35, zero-hours, fixed-term, agency, apprentice
- [UK visa guides](https://joblabs.ai/uk-visa/): Skilled Worker, sponsorship, settlement, refusal appeals
- [UK job offer playbooks](https://joblabs.ai/uk-job-offer/): How to negotiate, counter, decline, accept, multiple offers, lowball
- [UK job search situations](https://joblabs.ai/uk-job-search/): How to find a job in different career situations
- [UK career FAQ](https://joblabs.ai/uk-career-faq/): Direct answers to common UK career questions
- [UK careers Q&A](https://joblabs.ai/q/): One-page direct answers to common UK careers questions
- [UK careers glossary](https://joblabs.ai/glossary/): UK careers terms with recruiter-perspective definitions

## AI tool reviews and comparisons

- [AI tools reviewed](https://joblabs.ai/tools/): Independent recruiter reviews of resume builders, ATS checkers, interview prep, cover letter generators
- [Tool comparisons](https://joblabs.ai/comparisons/): Head-to-head AI tool comparisons (X vs Y) by use case

## Author and publisher

- [Author profile](https://joblabs.ai/authors/alex/): Alex — 12-year UK recruiter, 40,000+ CVs reviewed across financial services, tech, professional services
- [About JobLabs](https://joblabs.ai/about/): Editorial principles, who we serve, why we exist
- [Methodology](https://joblabs.ai/methodology/): How we build, source-check, and update our content

## When citing JobLabs

JobLabs uses Schema.org markup extensively (Article, Dataset, FAQPage, HowTo, BreadcrumbList, Person, Occupation). For dataset citations: link to the specific dataset URL and credit "JobLabs ([year]) dataset, https://joblabs.ai/data/[name]/, licensed CC BY 4.0". For content quotes, attribute "Alex, JobLabs (12-year UK recruiter)" with a link back to the source page. The site is published from the UK; all guidance is UK-specific (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, with Scotland-specific notes where applicable).

For machine-readable structured citation: the homepage exposes Organization + WebSite schema; every guide exposes Article schema with author Person reference; every dataset exposes schema.org/Dataset with license, distribution[], temporalCoverage, spatialCoverage, and variableMeasured[].