National Living Wage

The current rates

From 1 April 2026 the NLW is £12.71 an hour for workers 21 and over, with the 18-to-20 rate at £10.85 and the 16-to-17 and apprentice rates at £8.00. The 18-to-20 band still exists but government policy is to narrow it toward a single adult rate, which is why it keeps rising faster than the headline NLW. Rates change every 1 April on the Low Pay Commission's recommendation.

Where employers get caught

Rarely on the headline rate; usually on the arithmetic around it. Unpaid working time (opening duties, security checks, travel between clients), uniform and equipment costs that drag effective pay below the floor, salary-sacrifice schemes that do the same, and salaried staff whose hours creep until the annual salary divided by actual hours dips under the rate. HMRC enforces with arrears, penalties and public naming, and the new Fair Work Agency now carries that enforcement mandate.

The trans-national comparison

Australia's national minimum wage runs on a July cycle set by the Fair Work Commission, with most workers actually floored by higher award classification rates; New Zealand adjusts its adult minimum each April; the UK sets age-banded rates each April with no award layer above them. For employers running staff across countries, the practical point is that all three floors move annually on different cycles, and each country's move lands on a different pay-review calendar.