Are you paid the minimum wage?

The rates

The rates are the same across the UK and usually rise every April. Apprentices get the apprentice rate if they're under 19, or if they're 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. After that first year, they get the rate for their age.

From 1 April 2027 the rates rise by 3.9%: £13.21 for 21 and over, £11.27 for 18 to 20, and £8.31 for under-18s and apprentices, with the accommodation offset at £11.53 a day (announced at the 28 October 2026 Budget). On the National Living Wage that's 50p an hour more, or £910 a year for 35 hours a week, before tax. The Minimum Wage Rise Calculator shows what it means after tax and National Insurance.

Almost every worker is entitled, including part-time, casual and agency workers and people on zero-hours contracts. The main exceptions are the self-employed, company directors, volunteers, people who live and work in their employer's family home as part of the family, and anyone under school leaving age.

Checking a salary

The minimum wage is an hourly rate, but it's checked over a pay period: a week, a month, or whatever period you're paid for, up to a month. Your pay for the period is divided by the hours you worked in it, and the answer must be at least the rate for your age.

A £25,000 salary for 37.5 hours a week is £480.77 a week, or £12.82 an hour. That's 11p an hour above the £12.71 minimum, with not much room to spare. At 40 hours a week, the same salary works out at £12.02 an hour, which is below it.

All the hours you're working count, including training, travelling between jobs or customers during the day, and waiting at your workplace for work. Your commute and unpaid breaks don't.

What comes off, and what doesn't count

Things you pay for to do the job. If you have to buy a uniform, tools or equipment, or the cost is taken from your pay, it comes off your pay for the check.

Salary sacrifice. Pay you give up for a pension, a cycle-to-work scheme or anything else is no longer your pay. Your pay after the sacrifice must still meet the minimum.

Tips, premiums and allowances. Tips, service charges and cover charges never count, however they're paid. Overtime and shift work count only at your basic rate, not the premium on top. Allowances such as London weighting don't count unless they're part of your basic pay.

Benefits. Meals, a company car, vouchers and other benefits don't count, even if they're worth money. Expenses your employer pays back don't count either.

Accommodation

Living accommodation from your employer is the one benefit that does count, up to a limit called the accommodation offset: £11.10 a day, or £77.70 a week, from April 2026.

• If it's free, your employer can add up to £11.10 a day to your pay for the check.
• If you pay for it, only the part of the charge above £11.10 a day comes off your pay. A charge of £120 a week is £42.30 over the £77.70 offset, so £42.30 comes off.

Worked example

Jade is 23 and works 40 hours a week for £520 a week before tax. That's £13 an hour, comfortably above £12.71. But her employer takes £15 a week from her wages to pay for her uniform.

The minimum for 40 hours is £508.40, so Jade is underpaid by £3.40 a week, about £177 over a year. Her employer has to make up the difference.

Check your own pay against the minimum wage →

If you're underpaid

Raise it with your employer first: it may be a mistake in how your pay or hours were worked out. Acas gives free, confidential advice, and you can complain to HMRC, which enforces the minimum wage. HMRC can make your employer pay you back, fine them, and may name them publicly.

Pay owed from an earlier year is worked out at today's rate. Someone aged 21 or over who was paid £8.40 a week too little in 2025/26, when the rate was £12.21, is owed £8.74 for each of those weeks now that the rate is £12.71: the shortfall divided by the old rate, times the new one.