April 2026 Minimum Wage Upratings: Worked Pay Examples by Age Band

The April 2026 rates at a glance

Every April, the government reviews and typically increases the National Minimum Wage rates across each age band. From April 2026, the confirmed rates are:

These are legal minimums — an employer paying less than the correct rate for a worker's age or apprenticeship status for hours actually worked is breaking the law, regardless of what a contract states. Check your own pay against the correct band with

.

Worked example: National Living Wage, 37.5-hour week

The most common full-time working pattern used for illustrative calculations is a 37.5-hour week. At £12.71 an hour:

This is gross pay before Income Tax and National Insurance are deducted — actual take-home pay will be lower once those deductions apply, though a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will typically still fall within the basic-rate band for both.

Worked example: 18-20 rate, 37.5-hour week

At £10.85 an hour, the same 37.5-hour week produces:

That's £69.75 less per week than the National Living Wage rate for identical hours — a gap of £3,631.13 over a full year, purely from the difference in age-band hourly rate rather than any difference in hours worked.

Worked example: 16-17 and apprentice rate, 37.5-hour week

At £8.00 an hour, the lowest statutory band:

This rate applies both to 16-17 year old workers generally, and separately to apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship (or under 19), regardless of the trade or role involved.

Scaling the examples to different hours

The accommodation offset

Where an employer provides living accommodation alongside a job — common in hospitality, agriculture, and some live-in care roles — and charges for it, only a capped amount can be counted toward the worker's minimum wage pay. For 2026/27 this accommodation offset is £11.10 a day. If the employer charges more than that for accommodation, the excess above £11.10 a day cannot be treated as reducing the worker's effective pay for minimum wage purposes — it must still be topped up so the worker's genuine cash pay, after accounting only for the permitted offset, meets the correct minimum wage rate for their age band.

For example, a live-in worker charged £15 a day for accommodation is only permitted to have £11.10 a day counted against their wage — the remaining £3.90 a day cannot reduce their effective pay below the minimum wage calculation, even though it may still be deducted from their actual cash wage under the accommodation arrangement itself. This distinction — what can be charged versus what can be offset against minimum wage — is a frequent source of underpayment errors, and CalcHub's uk-minimum-wage-2026 guide covers the calculation in more detail.

How April upratings typically compare year on year

The government reviews minimum wage rates every year, usually announcing figures ahead of the April implementation date following recommendations from the Low Pay Commission, an independent body that assesses the labour market before recommending each year's rates. While this article focuses on the confirmed April 2026 figures rather than speculating about future years, it's useful context that minimum wage upratings have generally moved in a similar direction across recent years — with the National Living Wage in particular narrowing the gap toward a stated policy ambition of reaching a target proportion of median earnings. Employers budgeting staff costs, and workers tracking their own pay, should expect the April review process to continue as a predictable annual event, even though the exact percentage increase each year depends on economic conditions and Low Pay Commission recommendations rather than being fixed in advance.

Part-time and variable-hours worked examples

Many minimum wage workers, particularly younger workers and those in hospitality or retail, work part-time or variable hours rather than a fixed 37.5-hour week. The table below extends the earlier worked examples to a wider set of common part-time patterns:

For anyone working genuinely variable hours week to week — common in retail and hospitality rota-based roles — the applicable hourly rate stays fixed by age band, but total weekly pay will fluctuate with the rota. It's worth checking each payslip individually against actual hours worked and the correct rate, rather than assuming a single "typical week" figure applies consistently.

Common minimum wage underpayment pitfalls

Beyond simply paying the wrong headline hourly rate, a number of specific situations commonly lead to unintentional (or sometimes deliberate) minimum wage underpayment that workers and employers should both be aware of:

• Unpaid trial shifts that extend beyond a genuinely brief skills trial into what is effectively unpaid work
• Compulsory uniform costs deducted from pay or required to be bought by the worker, which can reduce effective pay below the minimum wage if not handled correctly
• Travel time between assignments for workers with multiple work locations in a single shift (such as home care workers), which often must be paid and is a frequently overlooked category
• Rounding down of hours worked, for example not paying for the last few minutes of a shift consistently over time, which can add up to a genuine underpayment across a pay period

Any of these can result in effective pay falling below the correct statutory minimum even when the stated hourly rate on paper looks correct, which is why HMRC's minimum wage enforcement considers total pay divided by total hours actually worked, not just the headline rate quoted in a contract.

Minimum wage and pension auto-enrolment interaction

Workers earning at or near minimum wage rates are also often subject to workplace pension auto-enrolment, which applies to eligible workers earning above the qualifying earnings lower threshold. Because auto-enrolment contributions are calculated on qualifying earnings — a band running between a lower and upper limit — rather than on total gross pay, a minimum wage worker's own pension contribution and their employer's matching contribution are both calculated on a portion of pay rather than the full gross amount. This matters when comparing take-home pay across the age bands worked through this article, since a worker who is auto-enrolled will see a further deduction beyond Income Tax and National Insurance, though contributions can be reduced or the worker can opt out entirely if they choose, unlike the statutory minimum wage itself which cannot be opted out of. Check how auto-enrolment interacts with your own gross pay using

.

Why employers budget carefully around the April uprating date

For employers with a significant proportion of staff paid at or near minimum wage rates — common in retail, hospitality, care and cleaning sectors — the annual April uprating represents a predictable but sometimes substantial increase in staff costs, particularly when a large share of the workforce sits in the National Living Wage band. Businesses typically begin budgeting for the confirmed rate change as soon as it's announced (generally some months before the April implementation date), reviewing rotas, pricing, and staffing levels against the new cost base. Workers can reasonably expect employers to implement the new rate from the correct April date without needing to request it, since paying below the current statutory minimum after the uprating date is unlawful regardless of whether an employer has updated its own systems yet — a worker who suspects their pay hasn't been updated in April should check their payslip against the new rate promptly rather than assuming it will be corrected automatically at a later date.

What to check on your own payslip

• Confirm which age band and apprenticeship status applies to you today, and check your hourly rate matches the corresponding April 2026 figure.
• If your birthday has recently taken you into a new age band, check your payslip reflects the higher rate from the correct pay reference period.
• If your employer provides accommodation and deducts a charge for it, check that no more than £11.10 a day has been offset against your minimum wage calculation.
• Scale the hourly rate by your actual hours worked, not a standard 37.5-hour assumption, if your contracted hours differ.