National Living Wage April 2026: New Rates, Who Gets the Rise and What It's Worth

Quick answer

The Low Pay Commission confirmed and Government accepted the April 2026 UK minimum wage rates. From 1 April 2026:

The under-21 rates continue the multi-year trend of converging towards the headline rate — the 18-20 band is now within 15% of the adult NLW, having been 30% lower in 2022.

What the new NLW means for a full-time worker

Most NLW workers do 37 or 37.5 hours/week. At £12.71/hour, 37.5 hours/week, 52 weeks:

Compare to the same hours at the April 2025 rate of £12.21:

So the £974 gross rise translates to £701 net — the taxman keeps £273 of it because of the frozen £12,570 personal allowance and frozen NI threshold (also £12,570).

What it means by age band — worked examples

Mia, 19, retail assistant, 30 hours/week

• Apr 2025: £10.00 × 30 × 52 = £15,600 gross. Tax: £606. NI: £242. Net: £14,752.
• Apr 2026: £10.85 × 30 × 52 = £16,926 gross. Tax: £871. NI: £348. Net: £15,707.
• Pay rise: +£1,326 gross, +£955 net per year.

The 8.5% headline rise translates to a 6.5% take-home rise for Mia — the rest absorbed by tax + NI on the new income above the threshold.

Daniel, 24, hospitality, 40 hours/week

• Apr 2025: £12.21 × 40 × 52 = £25,397 gross. Tax: £2,565. NI: £1,026. Net: £21,806.
• Apr 2026: £12.71 × 40 × 52 = £26,437 gross. Tax: £2,773. NI: £1,109. Net: £22,555.
• Pay rise: +£1,040 gross, +£749 net per year.

Aisha, 17, apprentice in year 1

• Apr 2025: £7.55 × 30 × 52 = £11,778 gross. Below PA, below NI threshold. Net = gross.
• Apr 2026: £8.00 × 30 × 52 = £12,480 gross. Still below PA (£12,570). Net = gross.
• Pay rise: +£702 fully retained (no tax, no NI). Apprentices below the threshold keep 100% of their rise.

The accommodation offset

If your employer provides accommodation (e.g. live-in care, hospitality, agriculture), they can offset some of the value against your wage. From April 2026 the daily offset is £11.10 (up from £10.66) — equivalent to £77.70/week if accommodation is provided every day.

Anything charged above this offset doesn't count toward NMW compliance — a common cause of employer underpayment investigations by HMRC.

Apprentice rules — when the apprentice rate stops applying

The apprentice rate (£8.00 from April 2026) only applies if both:

1. The worker is under 19, or
2. The worker is 19+ and in the first year of their apprenticeship.

A 20-year-old in the second year of their apprenticeship is entitled to the 18-20 rate (£10.85), not the apprentice rate. This catches a lot of employers out and is the single most common NMW underpayment HMRC sees.

The £100m question — who pays?

Around 1.6 million workers receive a direct NLW rise in April 2026 — about 5% of the UK workforce. The Treasury estimates the total wage uplift across the economy at £4.8bn, of which:

• ~£900m flows back to HMRC as income tax + employee NI.
• ~£700m flows back as employer NI (which is now 15% above the new £5,000 employer threshold).
• Net "extra in pockets" effect: roughly £3.2bn across all UK NLW workers.

For employers with a high-NLW workforce (retail, hospitality, social care), the employer NI on the rise matters — every £1,000 of basic-rate-paying staff pay rise now costs the employer £1,150 (£1,000 + 15% employer NI).

Knock-on effects to watch

• Universal Credit taper. Earning £974 more gross while on UC means losing 55p of UC per £1 of net rise — partly clawing back the wage gain. Run the numbers if you're a UC claimant.
• Childcare-funded hours. The 30-hours free childcare requires both parents earning above ~£10,065 each per year (16 × NLW × 52 / 8 weeks). The new NLW makes that threshold easier to meet for part-time workers.
• Student loan thresholds. Plan 5 (post-Aug 2023) starts at £25,000. A 40hr/week NLW worker on £26,437 is now £1,437 above the threshold — Plan 5 deduction of £129/year.
• Pension auto-enrolment. Triggered at £10,000. NLW workers part-time (>= 16 hrs/week) typically cross this and get auto-enrolled — the workplace match is real value on top of headline pay.

Compare to inflation

CPI inflation for the 12 months to March 2026 ran at approximately 2.8%. The 4.1% NLW rise (over-21s) is therefore a real-terms rise of ~1.3% — the third consecutive year of above-inflation NLW rises.

Over five years (April 2021 to April 2026), the NLW for over-21s has risen from £8.91 to £12.71 — a 42.6% cumulative increase, compared with CPI inflation of around 24% over the same period. Real-terms uplift: roughly 15%.

Where the NLW now sits relative to other UK pay benchmarks

For the first time, the April 2026 NLW now exceeds the bottom of NHS Band 2 — likely forcing an NHS Agenda for Change uplift in 2026/27.

How to check you're being paid the right rate

1. Confirm your age and apprentice status with HR.
2. Multiply your hourly rate by your contracted hours and compare to the table above.
3. Check pay reference period: NMW must be hit on average across each pay reference period (usually monthly), not just hourly.
4. Watch for deductions that drag pay below NMW — uniform charges, till shortfalls, accommodation above the offset.
5. Use HMRC's complaint route at gov.uk if underpaid — back-pay is enforced for up to 6 years.

Try the numbers for your own hours

For a full take-home figure on the new NLW:

For Self Assessment / second-job NMW workers:

Related reading:

• Understanding your UK payslip
• £30,000 a year after tax in 2025/26
• UK tax codes explained: 1257L and friends

Sources

• gov.uk: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
• Low Pay Commission: Recommendations for 2026
• HMRC: National Minimum Wage compliance
• ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
• Living Wage Foundation: Current real Living Wage rates