UK raises National Living Wage to £12.71 and 18–20 rate to £10.85
Payroll teams must apply new hourly floors from 1 April 2026
Change
UK has set hourly pay floors effective 1 April 2026 at £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over and £10.85 for 18–20-year-olds, raising pay for about 2.7 million workers.
Why it matters
Apprenticeship pay is constrained: apprentices aged 16–18 and apprentices in their first year must be paid the 16–18 rate (£8.00), while apprentices over 19 or beyond their first year must receive the appropriate age-based National Minimum or National Living Wage. A full-time 37.5-hour worker aged 21+ now has a statutory pay floor equivalent to £24,784.50 annually, increasing payroll obligations for employers.
Implications
- — Payroll teams at UK employers must update payroll systems and rate tables immediately to apply the £12.71, £10.85 and £8.00 hourly rates from the 1 April 2026 pay period — failure will produce underpayments in the next pay run.
- — Finance teams at UK employers must provision additional wage cost in the upcoming payroll cycle immediately to cover higher statutory pay floors — failure to fund payroll runs risks missed or late employee payments.
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Source
View on BBC