National Living Wage and minimum wage rates 2026

From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage, the legal minimum for workers aged 21 and over, is £12.71 an hour. Workers aged 18 to 20 must get at least £10.85, and under-18s and apprentices in their first year at least £8.00. These rates apply to all employers in the UK, public and private, and they are set by the government each April.

The 2026/27 rates

Age band	Hourly rate from 1 April 2026
21 and over (National Living Wage)	£12.71
18 to 20	£10.85
Under 18	£8.00
Apprentice (under 19, or 19 and over in the first year)	£8.00
Accommodation offset	£11.10 a day, £77.70 a week

Technically only the rate for people aged 21 and over is called the National Living Wage. The others are National Minimum Wage rates, but the law works the same way for all of them.

What that is as a salary

For a full-time job, multiply the hourly rate by the weekly hours and then by 52.143 weeks:

• £12.71 at 37.5 hours a week is £24,853 a year.
• £12.71 at 37 hours a week is £24,521 a year.
• £10.85 at 37.5 hours a week is £21,216 a year.
• £8.00 at 37.5 hours a week is £15,643 a year.

The hourly to annual salary guide explains the method and why 52.143 is used.

How public sector pay scales compare

National pay scales in the public sector are adjusted so that the bottom point stays at or above the National Living Wage.

In the NHS in England, the new rate briefly overtook band 2. NHS Employers lifted band 1 and both band 2 points to £24,853, exactly £12.71 an hour on a 37.5-hour week, from 1 April 2026. The 3.3 per cent pay award then took band 2 to £25,272, which is about £12.92 an hour. The NHS band 2 page covers the jobs at that level.

On the NJC spine for councils and school support staff, SCP 2 was deleted from 1 April 2026, leaving SCP 3 at £25,614 as the lowest point after the 3.3 per cent award. That is about £13.28 an hour on a 37-hour week.

Neither scale reaches the voluntary Real Living Wage of £14.10 an hour at its lowest point. See the Real Living Wage vs the National Living Wage for the difference.

Who is entitled

You are entitled to the minimum wage if you are a worker: employees, agency workers, casual and zero-hours workers, part-time workers and most apprentices. It does not apply to the genuinely self-employed, company directors in most cases, or volunteers. Interns may or may not be covered depending on whether they are workers in law.

The rate that applies depends on your age at the start of each pay period, and is checked against the hours you work in that period. If you move into a higher age band, your employer should pay the new rate from the next pay period.

What counts towards the minimum

Basic pay and most bonuses count. Things that do not count include tips, shift premiums for unsocial hours, overtime premiums above the basic rate, and most allowances. Deductions for things the employer requires, such as a uniform you have to buy, can take your pay below the minimum and are not allowed to.

Free or subsidised accommodation is the one benefit that can count, up to the accommodation offset of £11.10 a day. Anything charged above that is ignored when checking minimum wage compliance.

Time spent on work-related travel between assignments, required training and waiting at work for duties usually counts as working time. Time on call at home, free to do as you like, usually does not.

If you are underpaid

Check your payslip against your hours. Payslips must show hours where pay varies with time worked. If you think you have been paid less than the minimum, raise it with your employer first; if that does not sort it out, ACAS can give free advice and HMRC enforces the minimum wage. Underpayments must be paid back at current rates.

To see what the National Living Wage leaves after tax and National Insurance, the take-home pay on the National Living Wage guide has a worked example, and the take-home pay calculator will do it for your own hours.