From 1 April 2027 the National Living Wage rises by 50p to £13.21 an hour, a 3.9 per cent increase. The Treasury says that adds £910 a year to a full-time worker’s gross pay. On a 37.5-hour week the gross rise is £975 — but after Income Tax, National Insurance and a standard workplace pension contribution, about £663 of it reaches your bank account. That is roughly £55 a month, or £12.75 a week.
The rise is real and it is worth having. It is also smaller in your pocket than the headline, because tax thresholds are frozen and every extra pound you earn at this level is taxed. Below: every new rate for April 2027, where the £910 comes from, the take-home maths at full-time and part-time hours, what happens if you claim Universal Credit, and how to check you are being paid correctly.
The new minimum wage rates from April 2027
The Low Pay Commission sent its recommendations to the government on 23 October 2026 and the government accepted them in full, announcing them alongside the Budget on 28 October. Every rate rises by 3.9 per cent. GOV.UK’s National Minimum Wage rates page already lists the April 2027 figures next to today’s.
Free download
The UK Savings Pot Tracker spreadsheet
Track every pot, rate and goal in one place. Enter your email and it is yours instantly, plus an occasional email when a money change affects you. Unsubscribe any time.
- National Living Wage (21 and over): £12.71 now, £13.21 from April 2027 (up 50p).
- 18 to 20-year-olds: £10.85 now, £11.27 (up 42p).
- 16 to 17-year-olds: £8.00 now, £8.31 (up 31p).
- Apprentices: £8.00 now, £8.31 (up 31p). The apprentice rate applies if you are under 19, or 19 or over and in the first year of your apprenticeship; after that you get the rate for your age.
- Accommodation offset: £11.10 a day now, £11.53 a day (up 43p). This is the most an employer can count towards minimum wage pay for accommodation it provides.
The April 2026 figures are from the government’s April 2026 announcement and GOV.UK’s accommodation offset guidance. The new rates are announced and accepted, not yet law: they take legal effect through amendment regulations, which had not been made at the time of writing. Until they are made, treat 1 April 2027 as the planned date.
The minimum wage is set for the whole UK. The same rates apply in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Why the rise is smaller than recent years
At 3.9 per cent this is a smaller rise than April 2026’s 4.1 per cent. In its advice letter to the government the Commission says its best estimate of the rate needed to reach its key reference point of two-thirds of median earnings by October 2027 was £13.44, a 5.7 per cent rise. It recommended less than that, warning that “labour demand is weak, particularly in key low-paying industries” and that “unemployment is expected to rise”. It also paused the gradual closing of the gap between the 18–20 rate and the National Living Wage, raising the youth rate by the same percentage instead.
Where the £910 comes from
The Treasury’s Budget 2026 summary says the uplift “represents an increase of £910 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage”. It does not say how many hours it assumes. Our inference from the arithmetic: £910 divided by 50p is 1,820 hours, which is exactly 35 hours a week for 52 weeks. That is our working, not a Treasury figure.
Plenty of full-time jobs are longer than that. At 37.5 hours a week the rise is £18.75 a week, or £975 over 52 weeks, taking gross pay from £24,784.50 to £25,759.50. At 40 hours it is £1,040. Whatever your hours, the gross gain is simply 50p times the hours you work.
“Gross” is the important word. None of those figures is what you take home.
What you actually take home
Three things take a slice of every extra pound at this level of pay. The Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds are frozen; the pension thresholds for 2027/28 have not been set yet.
- Income Tax at 20 per cent on everything above the £12,570 Personal Allowance. HMRC set the allowance at £12,570 until 5 April 2028, and a later decision keeps it there until 5 April 2031. So it is still £12,570 in 2027/28.
- Employee National Insurance at 8 per cent above the primary threshold of £12,570 a year (£242 a week), according to HMRC’s rates and thresholds for 2026/27. The threshold is tied to the Personal Allowance for the same years. The Budget’s rates and allowances annex lists the same figures for 2027/28: a £12,570 Personal Allowance, a 20 per cent basic rate, a £242-a-week primary threshold and an 8 per cent employee rate.
- Your workplace pension. Under auto-enrolment you pay a minimum of 5 per cent of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, if you earn over the £10,000 trigger. Those are the 2026/27 thresholds; the 2027/28 figures had not been published when we checked, so we have assumed they stay the same. Your 5 per cent includes basic-rate tax relief — GOV.UK’s example is £40 from you plus £10 tax relief — so for a basic-rate taxpayer it costs 4 per cent of qualifying earnings in take-home pay.
Add those up and, once you are earning above £12,570, each extra pound of pay costs you 20p in tax, 8p in National Insurance and 4p net into your pension. You keep 68p. Here is how that plays out. We use annual figures; payroll applies weekly or monthly thresholds, so payslips may differ by pennies.
| Hours a week | Gross pay 2026/27 → 2027/28 | Gross rise | Extra Income Tax | Extra NI | Extra pension (your net cost) | Take-home rise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | £13,218.40 → £13,738.40 | £520.00 | £104.00 | £41.60 | £20.80 | £353.60 |
| 35 (matches the Treasury’s £910) | £23,132.20 → £24,042.20 | £910.00 | £182.00 | £72.80 | £36.40 | £618.80 |
| 37.5 | £24,784.50 → £25,759.50 | £975.00 | £195.00 | £78.00 | £39.00 | £663.00 |
On a 37.5-hour week, £312 of the £975 goes elsewhere: £195 in tax, £78 in National Insurance and £39 into your pension. Your take-home pay rises from about £20,622.66 to £21,285.66. That pension slice is not lost — it is still your money — and your employer adds its own 3 per cent, another £29.25 a year on that rise. If you have opted out of your pension, you keep £702 of the £975.
The freeze is doing quiet work here. Because the thresholds do not rise with wages, a full-time worker on the minimum is now well inside the tax net, and every pound of the April rise is taxed. Our guide to frozen tax thresholds and fiscal drag explains why the same thing is happening to almost every worker.
Check your tax code on your April 2027 payslip. The worked examples assume 1257L, the code for someone with a single job and no adjustments (S1257L in Scotland, C1257L in Wales). If yours is different and you do not know why, check it in your HMRC online account or the HMRC app.
Part-time workers
At 20 hours a week the rise is £520 gross and £353.60 take-home. The same 68p in the pound applies, because at £13,218.40 you are already above the £12,570 tax and National Insurance thresholds.
If you earn below £12,570 a year — at £13.21 that is anyone working fewer than about 18 hours a week all year — you pay no Income Tax or employee National Insurance on the rise at all. Earn below £10,000 and your employer does not have to auto-enrol you into a pension either, so you keep the whole rise. Cross one of those lines in April and part of the rise goes the same way as above.
Scotland
National Insurance is the same across the UK, but Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands. On the 2026/27 Scottish bands, a full-time National Living Wage worker’s rise falls in the 20 per cent basic band (£16,538 to £29,526), the same rate as the rest of the UK. The 20-hour example sits in the 19 per cent starter band (£12,571 to £16,537), so it would pay slightly less tax on the rise. The Scottish bands for 2027/28 are set by the Scottish Parliament and had not been published at the time of writing.
If you claim Universal Credit
For Universal Credit claimants the rise is smaller again. GOV.UK says that “for every £1 you earn from working, your Universal Credit payment goes down by 55p”, once you are past any work allowance. The allowance is £427 a month if you get help with housing costs through Universal Credit, or £710 if not, and you only get one if you are responsible for a child or have a health condition or disability that affects your ability to work.
The 55p is taken from your earnings after Income Tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, which the Universal Credit Regulations deduct first. So for a claimant already earning above their work allowance, the 20-hour worker’s £353.60 take-home rise shrinks by £194.48 of lost Universal Credit, leaving £159.12 a year, about £13.26 a month. The exact figure moves by a few pounds depending on how your pension scheme takes contributions.
That is roughly 31p of every extra gross pound. It is still a gain — you are better off — but do not budget on the headline. Our round-up of Universal Credit changes covers the rest of the system.
Plug your own numbers into our budget planner once your April payslip arrives.
Planning around £55 a month, not £910 a year?
Put your real take-home figure into a monthly budget now, so April’s rise goes where you choose instead of disappearing.
Explore GetSmartSaver →The Real Living Wage is a different number
The £13.21 is the legal minimum. The “real Living Wage” is something else: a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation, based on what people need to live on. On 15 October 2026 the Foundation announced new rates of £14.10 an hour across the UK and £15.45 in London, up from £13.45 and £14.80. Accredited employers have until 1 May 2027 to pay them.
The Foundation says nearly 17,000 UK businesses pay it voluntarily. Nobody else has to. If your employer is an accredited Living Wage employer, you should expect £14.10 (£15.45 in London) by 1 May; if not, the legal minimum from April is £13.21, 89p an hour less.
How to check you are paid correctly
Underpayment is often accidental. Common causes:
- Your birthday. Turn 21 and your minimum becomes the National Living Wage. Apprentices aged 19 or over move to the rate for their age once their first year is complete.
- Accommodation charges. If your employer provides your accommodation and charges more than the daily offset (£11.53 from April 2027), the excess is taken off the pay that counts towards the minimum wage.
- April timing. The new rate applies from your first pay period that starts on or after 1 April, according to HMRC’s manual. If you are paid monthly and your pay period began in late March, the rise may not show until the following month. Work out your hourly rate by dividing your basic pay by the hours you actually worked.
If you think you are being underpaid, talk to your employer first. If that fails, GOV.UK directs you to the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) or a complaint to HMRC. HMRC’s own manual says it continues to enforce the minimum wage until April 2027, when the job moves to the new Fair Work Agency. Arrears are worked out at the current rate, and HMRC’s enforcement guidance says employers can face penalties of up to 200 per cent of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. You can also bring a claim yourself through an employment tribunal (an industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland) or the courts.
What to do now
- Work out your own number. Multiply 50p by your weekly hours and by 52. Then, if you earn over £12,570, keep 68p in every pound of that (72p if you are not in a pension).
- Budget on take-home, not gross. At 35 to 37.5 hours a week that is about £52–£55 a month more from April.
- Think before opting out of your pension. On a 37.5-hour week, opting out keeps an extra £39 of the rise but gives up your employer’s £29.25 on top. Our guide to workplace pensions explains what the 8 per cent minimum buys you.
- If you claim Universal Credit, expect the Universal Credit payment for the assessment period in which your first higher pay packet arrives to be slightly lower. That is the taper working, not a mistake.
- Check your April and May payslips against the new rate and your age band.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the National Living Wage from April 2027?
The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over rises from £12.71 to £13.21 an hour on 1 April 2027, a 3.9 per cent increase. The 18 to 20 rate rises to £11.27, and the 16 to 17 and apprentice rates both rise to £8.31. The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s figures, but they still need amendment regulations to become law.
Where does the £910 a year figure come from?
The Treasury says the rise adds £910 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage. It does not state the hours. Our inference: £910 divided by the 50p rise is 1,820 hours, which is 35 hours a week for 52 weeks. At 37.5 hours a week the gross rise is £975.
How much of the rise will I actually take home?
Once you earn above £12,570, each extra pound costs 20p in Income Tax, 8p in National Insurance and about 4p net into a minimum workplace pension, so you keep about 68p. On a 37.5-hour week the £975 gross rise becomes about £663 take-home, roughly £55 a month. On 35 hours, £910 becomes £618.80.
Will the rise reduce my Universal Credit?
Yes, if you are already earning above your work allowance. Universal Credit falls by 55p for every extra £1 of earnings after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. In our 20-hour example, a £353.60 take-home rise becomes about £159.12 a year once Universal Credit is reduced, roughly £13 a month. You are still better off.
Is the Real Living Wage the same as the National Living Wage?
No. The National Living Wage is the legal minimum for workers aged 21 and over, £13.21 from April 2027. The real Living Wage is a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation, £14.10 an hour in the UK and £15.45 in London from October 2026. Only accredited employers commit to paying it, by 1 May 2027.
What should I do if I am paid less than the minimum wage?
Raise it with your employer first, as mistakes are common. If that does not work, call the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100 or complain to HMRC, which enforces the minimum wage until April 2027, when the Fair Work Agency takes over. Arrears are calculated at the current rate, and employers can face penalties of up to 200 per cent.
Last reviewed: November 2026. Minimum wage rates apply across the whole UK. Take-home figures use the 2026/27 Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds, which are frozen for 2027/28, Income Tax rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the 2026/27 auto-enrolment thresholds; Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands, and its 2027/28 bands had not been published at the time of writing. Worked examples are our own calculations on stated assumptions and assume a standard tax code and 52 paid weeks. This article is general information, not personal financial advice. Budget measures can change before they become law — check GOV.UK or the relevant body, or get free help from MoneyHelper or Citizens Advice, before acting on it.
