When does the minimum wage go up? UK pay dates and average salary context

When does the minimum wage go up? The short answer

The minimum wage in the UK rises once a year, on 1 April. That date applies across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, because the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are set on a UK-wide basis following recommendations from the Low Pay Commission. GOV.UK confirms that from 1 April 2026 every rate of the National Minimum Wage, including the National Living Wage, increases. Rates are normally announced in the preceding autumn, giving employers and payroll teams about six months to prepare.

So when does the minimum wage go up? Every April — with the 2027 rates expected to be announced in the autumn 2026 statement. There is no mid-year uprating, and the hourly floor itself does not vary by region. What does vary is what reaches your bank account, because Income Tax and National Insurance are calculated differently in different parts of the UK.

The 2026 rates in full

GOV.UK National Minimum Wage rates from April 2026:

Band	Rate from April 2026	Annual increase
National Living Wage (21 and over)	£12.71	£0.50 (4.1%)
18 to 20 year old rate	£10.85	£0.85 (8.5%)
16 to 17 year old rate	£8.00	£0.45 (6.0%)
Apprentice rate	£8.00	£0.45 (6.0%)
Accommodation offset	£11.10 per day	£0.44 (4.1%)

The shape of that table matters. The main adult rate rises by 4.1% while the 18 to 20 rate rises by 8.5%, deliberately narrowing the gap between younger workers and the adult floor. Apprentices and 16 to 17 year olds see a 6% rise. If you are paid at or near a minimum wage band, the date that matters is 1 April. If your pay sits slightly above the floor, many employers stage a matching uplift to preserve differentials, but that is employment policy rather than a legal requirement.

What the headline rate is worth across a full year

The National Living Wage is an hourly rate, so annual totals depend on hours. On a standard 37.5-hour week, £12.71 multiplied by 37.5 and by 52 comes to roughly £24,785 gross a year, or about £2,065 a month before deductions. For context, the previous April 2025 adult rate of £12.21 was worth roughly £23,810 a year on the same hours. Someone on 40 hours earns more; someone on 25 hours earns proportionally less. Check contracted hours in any offer rather than assuming a full-time week.

How the minimum wage compares with UK average and median pay

ONS ASHE gives the clearest benchmarks. In April 2025, median weekly earnings for full-time employees were £766.60, up 5.3% on the year in nominal terms and 1.1% in real terms once CPIH inflation is applied. Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees were £39,039, against £37,439 a year earlier — a 4.3% rise.

Set the illustrative £24,785 full-time National Living Wage figure against that £39,039 median, and the floor sits at roughly two-thirds of typical full-time pay. GOV.UK notes that the Low Pay Commission remit keeps two-thirds of median hourly earnings as the key reference point for future upratings, so that relationship is intentional. UK Average Salary tracks these benchmarks as they are updated.

Mean, median and minimum are three different things

The mean, or average, adds every salary together and divides by the number of jobs. The median is the middle point — half of jobs pay less, half pay more. ONS prefers the median because a small number of very high earners drag the mean upwards. Sage Advice UK reports a mean average salary across all employees of £40,269, which sits above the full-time median of £39,039 precisely because of that skew.

Other published figures cover different populations and should not be mixed carelessly. Median annual pay for part-time employees is £14,713, far below the full-time figure, mainly because of hours rather than hourly rates. Median weekly pay across all employees is £642.50 and median hourly pay across all employees is £18.00. Those all-employee figures include part-time jobs, so multiplying a weekly figure by 52 will not reproduce an annual full-time median. Each number answers a slightly different question.

Take-home pay, not gross

The deduction picture matters as much as the headline. On roughly £24,785 gross, the standard personal allowance of £12,570 leaves about £12,215 taxable at the basic rate of 20%, which is about £2,443 in Income Tax. Employee National Insurance at 8% applies above £12,570, adding roughly £977. Auto-enrolment pension contributions at 5% of qualifying earnings would take off about £930. That leaves a net figure in the region of £20,400 to £20,500 a year, or roughly £1,700 a month, depending on pension choices and any student loan.

Scotland uses different Income Tax bands

National Insurance is UK-wide, but Income Tax on earnings is devolved. Scottish taxpayers use starter (19%), basic (20%), intermediate (21%), higher (42%), advanced (45%) and top (48%) bands, with the same £12,570 personal allowance. At minimum wage earnings, most taxable pay falls within the 19% starter band, so a Scottish employee on the National Living Wage is likely to pay slightly less Income Tax than someone in England or Wales on the same gross pay. At higher salaries the Scottish bands become less generous. Compare gross pay across the UK, then calculate take-home separately.

Where minimum wage growth shows up in average pay

ONS ASHE reports that median weekly earnings for full-time employees rose across all major occupations and sector-level industries between April 2024 and April 2025. The largest growth among major occupations was in caring, leisure and other service occupations, at 7.1%. It also notes that all low-paid major occupations saw hourly pay excluding overtime rise above or close to the April 2025 National Living Wage increase, and that Northern Ireland recorded the highest growth in median weekly full-time earnings at 7.4%.

That pattern is what you would expect when a statutory floor rises faster than typical pay: averages for lower-paid occupations and lower-paying regions get pulled up, while medians across the whole economy move more slowly. It also means year-on-year comparisons for low-paid roles can flatter the picture unless you separate the effect of the rate rise from genuine progression or promotion.

What this means if you are comparing jobs

Compare like with like. Check contracted hours, overtime and unsocial-hours premiums, because a headline hourly rate tells you little on its own. Ask whether London weighting or a regional supplement applies, and remember that advertised pay is not take-home pay. If an offer sits just above the National Living Wage, ask whether the employer reviews pay each April — some do, some do not.

For broader context, our salary data pages set out median benchmarks by group, and salary articles explain how to read them. The central point is simple: the wage floor rises every April and remains well below the median for full-time employees, so it marks a starting point in the pay distribution rather than a description of typical UK pay.