National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates increase

The National Living Wage (NLW) rose to £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over on 1 April 2026, an increase of 50p or 4.1%¹. The National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates for younger workers and apprentices also increased on the same date, according to the government's announcement¹. The rates bring into effect recommendations made by the Low Pay Commission (LPC) in autumn 2025¹.

The new rates are set out below.

Source: GOV.UK¹

The LPC submitted its recommendations to the government on 27 October 2025, and the government announced acceptance of them at the Autumn Budget on Wednesday 26 November¹. The Budget summary published by the House of Lords Library states that the government estimated the NLW increase would benefit around 2.4 million low-paid workers and represents an increase of £900 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW². The same summary records the 18 to 20-year-old rate rising by 8.5% to £10.85 an hour and the 16 to 17-year-old and apprentice rates rising by 6.0% to £8.00 an hour². Turn2us, in its benefit changes timetable, gives the same figures and records the previous rates as £12.21 for the NLW, £10.00 for 18 to 20-year-olds and £7.55 for 16 to 17-year-olds and apprentices³.

The NLW is the statutory minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over. The age threshold came down from 25 to 23 in April 2021 and from 23 to 21 in April 2024¹. The LPC is an independent body made up of employers, trade unions and experts whose role is to advise the government on the minimum wage, and the rate recommendations introduced on 1 April were agreed unanimously by the Commission¹. Its current members are Baroness Philippa Stroud (Chair), Nigel Cotgrove, Matthew Fell, Andrew Goodacre, Louise Fisher, Professor Patricia Rice, Simon Sapper, Professor Jonathan Wadsworth and Janet Williamson¹.

Baroness Philippa Stroud, Chair of the Low Pay Commission, said:

The nidirect guidance for Northern Ireland lists the same April 2026 rates: £12.71 for those aged 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20-year-olds, £8.00 for under-18s and £8.00 for apprentices⁴. It states that apprentices under the age of 19, or aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship, are entitled to a minimum hourly rate of £7.55, and that this rate does not apply to Higher Level Apprenticeships⁴. It also states that the hourly rates change on 1 April each year⁴. The nidirect page gives the accommodation offset as £74.62 per week (£10.66 a day) from April 2025, while the government's April 2026 table gives the offset as £11.10 an hour, up 44p¹. The two figures are expressed on different bases and the sources do not reconcile them.

Why it matters for households

The rates set a legal floor for hourly pay across the UK, and the 1 April 2026 uprating applies to pay reference periods from that date¹. Workers aged 21 and over are covered by the NLW; those aged 18 to 20, under 18, and apprentices are covered by the separate NMW rates¹. NMW pay is calculated on gross pay, before tax and National Insurance are deducted, and service charges, tips, gratuities and cover charges do not count towards it⁴. Where an employer provides accommodation, only the accommodation offset can be counted towards minimum wage pay, and any charge above that reduces the pay that counts⁴.

The increase also feeds into other figures. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Minimum Income Standard for 2026, published on 8 September 2026, uses a rate of £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026 and finds that a lone parent with two children working full-time on the NLW reaches 67% of MIS, while a couple with two children where both parents work full-time on the NLW reaches 80%⁵. Gingerbread, responding to the Budget on 27 November 2025, said the changes to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, "set to increase by 8.5% and 4.1%, respectively, from April 2026", would benefit many single-parent families, who it said are more likely to be employed in low-paid and part-time roles⁶.

What happens next

The LPC has published a report looking at the immediate impacts of the new rates and a consultation to inform its recommendations on future minimum wage rates¹. The government's remit to the LPC, which determines the Commission's work through the year, was published on 16 March¹. Baroness Stroud said the Commission is "now beginning to gather evidence for recommendations later this year"¹. No date for the next set of rates has been reported beyond the annual 1 April change⁴.