UK Minimum Wage Rates 2026

Minimum wage rates by age band and year

Each row takes effect on 1 April of the year shown and runs to 31 March. The National Living Wage is the top band; the age it starts at has changed twice, so the "NLW starts at" column tells you which workers the top rate covered that year, and the next column shows the separate adult band that sat underneath it while one existed.

Every figure is taken from GOV.UK — the current and previous National Minimum Wage rates pages, cross-checked against HMRC's "rates and thresholds for employers" guidance for each year. Use the rate that applied on the date you were actually paid, not the current one.

National Minimum Wage vs National Living Wage

These are not competing schemes. The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is the law that entitles almost every worker in the UK to a minimum hourly rate. The National Living Wage (NLW) is simply the government's name for the highest band within that law — the rate paid to workers aged 21 and over, currently £12.71 an hour. Everything below it — the 18-20 rate, the under-18 rate and the apprentice rate — is still "the National Minimum Wage".

The age at which the top rate starts has moved twice. It was 25 and over when the National Living Wage was introduced, dropped to 23 and over on 1 April 2021, and has been 21 and over since 1 April 2024. That is why the 2023-24 row above still shows a separate 21 to 22 band at £10.18, and today's rows do not.

Which rate applies to you

You move up a band on your birthday, but the new rate only has to be paid from the start of the next pay reference period after it — not part-way through the month you turn 21. Almost all workers are covered, including part-time, casual, zero-hours and agency workers. The main exclusions are the genuinely self-employed, company directors with no employment contract, and some voluntary workers.

What the apprentice rate depends on

The apprentice rate is £8.00 an hour from 1 April 2026. It turns on two things only — the apprentice's age and how far into the apprenticeship they are. It does not depend on the level, sector or provider of the apprenticeship.

• An apprentice aged under 19 gets the apprentice rate for the whole apprenticeship.
• An apprentice aged 19 or over gets the apprentice rate only during the first year.
• After that first year, a 19 or 20 year old apprentice must be paid at least the 18-20 rate of £10.85, and an apprentice aged 21 or over must be paid at least the National Living Wage of £12.71.
• Time spent on required training or study counts as working time and must be paid at the applicable rate.

The accommodation offset

Accommodation is the only benefit in kind that can count toward minimum wage pay. If an employer provides it, a capped daily amount — the accommodation offset — is treated as pay. From 1 April 2026 that cap is £11.10 a day, with an overriding weekly maximum of £77.70 (7 times the daily rate) however many days the accommodation is provided.

If the employer charges more than the offset, the excess is deducted from the pay that counts for the minimum wage. That is the common way an employer paying a compliant-looking hourly rate ends up underpaying: the rent charged for on-site accommodation quietly drags the countable rate below the legal minimum.

The real Living Wage is not the statutory rate

Only the rates in the tables above are statutory. They are set by the government on the Low Pay Commission's recommendation and enforced by HMRC, which can order arrears and impose penalties.

The real Living Wage is a separate, voluntary rate published by the Living Wage Foundation and calculated from what it costs to live rather than from median earnings. The rates announced on 22 October 2025 are £13.45 an hour across the UK and £14.80 an hour in London, and they apply from age 18 with no lower youth or apprentice bands. Accredited employers commit to paying them, but an employer that does not is breaking no law as long as it meets the statutory minimum for the worker's age band. The Living Wage Foundation announces the next rates each October.

What the 2026 National Living Wage is worth

At £12.71 an hour, 37.5 hours a week comes to about £24,785 a year before tax — roughly £975 more than the same hours on the 2025 rate of £12.21. That is gross pay: income tax, National Insurance and any student loan or pension deductions come out of it. Use the Minimum Wage Calculator to check your own hours and whether you are being underpaid, or the Hourly Rate Calculator to see what an hour is worth after tax.

The next uprating — April 2027

Minimum wage rates are uprated once a year on 1 April. The process is always the same: the government issues a remit to the independent Low Pay Commission, the LPC consults and recommends rates, the government accepts (or does not) and confirms the figures — usually at the Budget — and amending regulations then make them law.

For April 2027, the Low Pay Commission Remit 2026 asked the LPC to recommend the National Living Wage, the 18-20 rate, the under-18 and apprentice rates and a new accommodation offset, and to report by the end of October 2026. In its 2026 consultation letter the LPC published an indicative range of £13.02 to £13.34 for the National Living Wage, with a central estimate of £13.18 — while stressing that these are indicative only, subject to its later deliberations and to changes in the economic data. We will publish the April 2027 rates here once the government has confirmed them; until then this page stays on the rates that are actually in force.

Frequently asked questions