Key takeaways
- From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over — the test is your real hourly rate, pay divided by every hour you actually work.
- Rates change on 1 April each year, not 6 April: the minimum wage runs on its own calendar.
- Your minimum-wage rate changes on your birthday, not at the next April uprating — turn 18 and you move from £8.00 to £10.85 an hour; turn 21 and you move from £10.85 to £12.71.
- HMRC enforces the minimum wage — it can order back-pay for up to six years, and fine the employer up to 200% of the arrears.
From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over. The test is your real hourly rate — pay divided by every hour you actually work.
The minimum wage rises every April, and every April the same two things happen: old rates linger in search results for months, and salaried workers discover their pay was never what they thought it was. The 2026 rates are the highest yet, and the gap between a headline salary and a legal hourly rate has never mattered more. Here is how to check yours in two minutes.
The April 2026 rates
| Age band | Rate from 1 April 2026 |
|---|---|
| National Living Wage (21+) | £12.71 / hour |
| 18–20 | £10.85 / hour |
| 16–17 | £8.00 / hour |
| Apprentice | £8.00 / hour |
Apprentices get the apprentice rate if they are under 19, or 19 or over in the first year of their apprenticeship. From the second year, apprentices aged 19 or over get the rate for their age band — so a 20-year-old apprentice in year two is on £10.85, not £8.00. Rates change on 1 April each year, not 6 April: the minimum wage runs on its own calendar, and the new rate applies from the first pay period starting on or after 1 April.
The check: your real hourly rate
If you are paid hourly, the check is easy: compare your rate with your band. If you are salaried, divide your annual salary by the hours you actually work in a year. The trap is the word "actually". Your contract may say 40 hours, but if you regularly work 45, the law tests your pay over 45 hours. Here is the example from the minimum wage checker:
| Contracted hours only | With 5 unpaid overtime hours | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours per week counted | 40 | 45 |
| Effective hourly rate (£24,000 salary) | £11.54 | £10.26 |
| Legal minimum (21+) | £12.71 | £12.71 |
| Shortfall per year | £2,433.60 | £5,733.00 |
A £24,000 salary on a 40-hour contract is £11.54 an hour — already below the £12.71 National Living Wage, a shortfall of £2,433.60 a year. Add five unpaid overtime hours a week and the rate falls to £10.26 an hour. The salary never changed; the hours did. And the comparison cuts both ways: at £13.00 an hour, a 22-year-old is comfortably legal — the checker says so plainly, because a pass is as useful as a fail.
What else counts — and what does not
Not everything on your payslip counts towards the minimum wage. Tips and service charges paid through the employer do not count unless they go through payroll in a specific way; the rules changed here in recent years, so older advice is unreliable. Deductions your employer makes for uniforms, tools or training can push your effective rate below the minimum even if your headline rate is legal — HMRC treats some deductions as reducing your pay for minimum-wage purposes. Accommodation is the big exception: if your employer provides housing, a fixed daily amount (the accommodation offset) can count towards the minimum, but only up to that offset. If any of these apply to you, the simple hourly check is not the whole story — but it is still the right place to start.
Who enforces it, and how complaints work
HMRC enforces the minimum wage, not your employer and not you alone. If you complain, HMRC can investigate your employer, order back-pay for up to six years, and fine the employer up to 200% of the arrears — with a minimum penalty that makes small underpayments expensive to ignore. Employers who are found to have underpaid can also be publicly named, which is a deterrent that matters more than the fine for most businesses. You can complain anonymously through ACAS, and your employer must not treat you badly for raising it: dismissal or detrimental treatment for asserting minimum-wage rights is automatically unfair, with no qualifying service needed.
The enforcement record is the reason the check in this article matters. HMRC finds underpayment most often in exactly the places this article describes: salaried workers with unpaid overtime, apprentices paid the wrong rate in their second year, and workers with deductions for uniforms or training that push them below the minimum. The arrears add up fast: a shortfall of £1.17 an hour on a 40-hour week is £2,433.60 a year, and over six years of back-pay that is £14,601.60 — before the fine. If your employer has been underpaying you, the money is recoverable. If your employer has been underpaying a whole team, HMRC's investigation recovers it for everyone at once.
Birthdays: when your rate changes
Your minimum-wage rate changes on your birthday, not at the next April uprating — and the change is immediate. Turn 18 and you move from £8.00 to £10.85 an hour; turn 21 and you move from £10.85 to £12.71. On a 40-hour week, the 18th birthday is worth £114 a week, and the 21st is worth £74.40 a week. Employers are supposed to apply the new rate from the first pay period that starts on or after your birthday, and the most common underpayment for young workers is simply the employer forgetting. Check your first payslip after each birthday: if the hourly rate has not moved, it is not a rounding error, it is arrears, and it is owed from the birthday.
Apprentices have their own birthday rule. The £8.00 apprentice rate applies if you are under 19, or if you are 19 or over and in the first year of your apprenticeship. Once you turn 19 and pass the first year, you move to the age band for your age — £10.85 if you are 19 or 20, £12.71 if you are 21 or over. The first-year clock starts when the apprenticeship starts, not when you turn 19, so a 19-year-old who started at 18 gets the apprentice rate for the remainder of the first year and then jumps. The other rule worth knowing is that the apprentice rate only applies to genuine apprenticeships with a training element: if there is no training, no apprenticeship agreement, and no off-the-job learning, the job is not an apprenticeship and the age rate applies from day one. If your employer calls you an apprentice but there is no training, that is the first thing to question.
What to do if you are underpaid
Start with a written query to your employer. Underpayment is often a payroll error — a missed uprating in April is the classic — and the arrears must be paid back in full. Keep your payslips and a record of the hours you actually worked: dates, start and finish times, anything that shows the pattern. If the employer does not fix it, ACAS offers free, confidential advice, and HMRC investigates minimum-wage complaints — they can order back-pay for up to six years plus a fine of up to 200% of the arrears. You cannot be dismissed or treated badly for raising it; that is unlawful, and it is the part of the law HMRC takes most seriously. The checker gives you the numbers to take into that conversation.
The one thing to remember about the minimum wage is that it is an hourly floor, not a salary figure — and the hourly figure is what you actually live on. A salary that looks fine on paper can fall below the floor once unpaid overtime, deductions, or training time are counted, and the shortfall is owed as arrears whether the employer meant it or not. Check your real hourly rate every April when the rates rise, and check it again after every birthday: the rate changes on the day you turn 18 or 21, and the most common underpayment for young workers is simply the employer forgetting. The minimum wage checker takes your pay, your hours, and your age and tells you in one number whether you are above the line — and if you are not, ACAS and HMRC are the next step, not a confrontation you have to handle alone.
Check your real hourly rate
The minimum wage checker takes your pay, your hours, and your age and tells you in one number whether you are above the line.
Figures from the 2026/27 rates, last checked against GOV.UK on 5 November 2026. See all the rates on UK tax rates 2026/27. Next in this series: Self-employed? Your first tax bill — and the payments-on-account shock.