What is the UK minimum wage in 2026?

The UK minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over, known as the National Living Wage, is £12.82 an hour from April 2026. That is an increase of approximately 5 percent on the 2025 rate of £12.21, following the Low Pay Commission's annual recommendation to the government. For workers aged 18 to 20, the rate is £10.60 an hour. For those under 18 and apprentices, the rate is £7.74 an hour.

The full 2026 minimum wage rates

There are four rates, not one. Which applies depends entirely on the worker's age and employment status. The rates from April 2026 are as follows.

Workers aged 21 and over receive the National Living Wage of £12.82 an hour. Workers aged 18 to 20 receive the National Minimum Wage rate of £10.60 an hour. Workers under the age of 18 who are above school leaving age receive £7.74 an hour. Apprentices receive £7.74 an hour, regardless of age, if they are in the first year of their apprenticeship or if they are aged under 19.

The age threshold for the full National Living Wage was lowered from 23 to 21 in April 2024, which means a larger share of the workforce is now entitled to the top rate than was previously the case.

Minimum wage versus living wage: not the same thing

The term living wage is used in two different ways in the UK and the distinction matters. The National Living Wage is the government-set legal minimum, currently £12.82 an hour for those aged 21 and over. Employers are legally required to pay at least this rate.

The Real Living Wage is a separate, voluntary rate calculated by the Living Wage Foundation based on the actual cost of living. It is higher than the government minimum: the UK Real Living Wage for 2025-26 is £12.60 an hour outside London, and the London Living Wage is £13.85 an hour. Some employers, particularly in financial services, professional services, and the public sector, pay the Real Living Wage voluntarily as a condition of accreditation. It is not a legal requirement.

The confusion between the two rates is common and consequential. When someone asks whether their employer is paying the living wage, the answer depends entirely on which definition is being used. The average UK wage sits well above both minimums, but the minimums set the floor for the largest category of low-paid workers.

How the minimum wage has changed

The National Living Wage has risen sharply over the past three years. The main rate was £10.42 in April 2023, £11.44 in April 2024, and £12.21 in April 2025. The 2026 rate of £12.82 represents a cumulative increase of more than 20 percent since 2023. That pace of increase has outrun overall wage growth in the economy, which means the minimum wage has risen as a share of median earnings, compressing the gap between the lowest-paid workers and the middle of the wage distribution.

The policy intent behind these increases is partly to reduce in-work poverty and partly to reduce the public cost of means-tested benefits for working households. The practical consequence for employers in low-wage sectors has been a significant increase in labour costs over a short period.

What the 2026 rate means for businesses

The April 2026 increase adds approximately £1,200 per year to the cost of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage relative to the 2025 rate, before employer National Insurance contributions. For businesses with a significant proportion of minimum-wage workers, particularly in retail, hospitality, social care, and logistics, the cumulative effect of successive increases since 2023 is material.

The April 2025 increase in employer National Insurance contributions from 13.8 to 15 percent, combined with a reduction in the threshold at which employers begin paying NICs, added further pressure to labour costs in those sectors. Businesses that absorbed the 2025 NIC change are now managing the 2026 minimum wage increase on top of that higher base cost.

The sectors most exposed are those where labour costs represent a high proportion of total costs and where pricing power is limited by consumer sensitivity. Hospitality, care, and food retail are under the greatest pressure. The CPIx wage component tracks whether these cost pressures are feeding through to consumer prices and to business hiring behaviour. The Briefed daily briefing covers each minimum wage announcement and what it means for affected sectors. Free, weekdays at 6:45am.