Minimum Wage by Age Calculator (UK)

Key numbers at a glance

Rates per GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage and Living Wage rates.

How the age bands work

UK minimum wage law fixes pay by age, not by job. There are four bands. Workers aged 21 and over get the National Living Wage — £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026. Workers aged 18 to 20 get £10.85. Workers aged 16 to 17 above compulsory school age get £8.00. And apprentices get £8.00 if they are under 19, or aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship; an apprentice who is 19+ and past year one moves onto the band for their age.

The band changes on your birthday, not at the end of a pay period. Turn 21 mid-month and your hourly floor rises to £12.71 from that date — your payslip should show the split. Employers who keep paying the old band after your birthday are underpaying you, and underpayment is assessed hour by hour: on a 38-hour week, the gap between the 18–20 rate and the NLW is (£12.71 − £10.85) × 38 = £70.68 a week — over £3,600 a year if nobody notices.

Three more rules matter for hospitality staff. First, tips never count towards the minimum wage — see the Tips Act guide. Second, the rate applies to every hour worked, including training time, opening and closing side-work, and mandatory meetings; averaging a high-paid week against a low-paid one is not allowed if the low week breaches the band. Third, if you are asked to sleep over or be on call, different rules on what counts as working time can apply — check the GOV.UK minimum wage guidance or call ACAS for free advice.

What changes in April 2026

Every April the rates are uprated, and on 1 April 2026 all four bands rose. The National Living Wage went up 50p, from £12.21 to £12.71 (about 4.1%). The 18–20 rate got the largest rise in percentage terms — up 85p from £10.00 to £10.85 (8.5%) — continuing the government's path towards a single adult rate. The 16–17 and apprentice rates each rose 45p, from £7.55 to £8.00 (6.0%).

Source: GOV.UK rates table, which lists April 2026 rates as current and the April 2027 uprating following the Low Pay Commission's recommendations. Confirm the 2027 figures on GOV.UK before relying on them.

For a full-time 38-hour worker, the April 2026 rise is worth (£12.71 − £12.21) × 38 × 52 = £988 gross a year on the NLW band — before tax and NI, which the take-home calculator handles. An 18–20-year-old on the same hours gained £1,679.20 a year. The April 2027 uprating would add another £988 for NLW staff on 38 hours if confirmed as announced.

If you were underpaid in previous years you can still claim: arrears going back up to 6 years (5 in Scotland) can be recovered, and HMRC enforces the minimum wage with penalties of up to 200% of arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. Start with a records request to your employer, then ACAS early conciliation — our tips law page walks through the process.

Full-time, part-time and zero-hours examples

Zero-hours workers are paid the same band rates for every hour actually worked; there is no minimum for hours not offered. Holiday for irregular-hours staff accrues at 12.07% of hours worked — see holiday pay for hospitality.

Checking your payslip against the calculator

Run the calculator with your contracted hours, then compare the weekly gross with your payslip. If the payslip is lower, three explanations account for most cases: your employer is applying the wrong age band; unpaid breaks are being counted as paid when they should not be (or paid breaks are being docked when they should not be); or "average" pay is hiding sub-minimum weeks. Tips and tronc payments never enter the comparison — they sit on top of the wage, never inside it.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Rates and rules change — always verify with GOV.UK, and get free confidential guidance from ACAS (0300 123 1100) before raising a wage dispute.