Glossary · UK

What is Automatic Enrolment Earnings Trigger?

The £10,000-a-year earnings level at which an eligible employee must be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employer.

Full Definition

The automatic enrolment earnings trigger is the annual earnings level — £10,000 for 2026/27, unchanged for a number of years — above which an eligible jobholder (aged between 22 and State Pension age, working in the UK) must be automatically enrolled by their employer into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, with both employer and employee making minimum contributions under auto-enrolment rules. Workers earning below the trigger are not automatically enrolled but can still opt in and receive employer contributions if they ask to join, provided they earn above the lower earnings limit for qualifying earnings (a separate, lower figure). The earnings trigger has been frozen even as average wages have risen, meaning a growing share of employees now clear the threshold and qualify for automatic enrolment, which is one of several deliberate or default freezes reviewed annually by the DWP alongside the qualifying earnings band used to calculate how much must actually be contributed.