National Living Wage to rise by 4.1% to £12.71 from April

The Government has announced that the National Living Wage, the statutory minimum hourly pay rate for adults aged 21 and over, will rise by 4.1% to £12.71 from April 2026. This 50p increase in the adult rate is in line with the central estimate in the most recent forecast from the Low Pay Commission (LPC), which had cautioned that the increase might be higher if average earnings growth outperformed forecasts. In the event, this was not the case and the LPC recommended its central estimate.

Youth rates will see higher increases: the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for those aged 18 to 20 will rise by 8.5% to £10.85 in April 2026, in keeping with the Government’s objective to eventually extend coverage of the adult rate to all workers aged 18 and over, while the NMW for 16- and 17-year-olds (and adults in the first year of an apprenticeship) will go up by 45pph or 6.0% to £8.00. These uplifts are much greater than the increase in the adult rate but somewhat lower than those implemented earlier this year (16.3% and 18.0% respectively, alongside a 6.7% rise in the NLW). 

Pay rises in 2026

The 4.1% increase in the statutory minimum is likely to influence employers’ decisions on pay in 2026. Would you like to know what other factors are influencing these decisions? If yes, just click below to take part in our poll of employers’ pay intentions for 2026. All participants will receive a free summary of the results.