UK minimum wage in 2024: a 9.8% rise and a lower age threshold, both at once

On 1 April 2024, the UK's National Living Wage rose 9.8% in a single move — from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour — and the age at which a worker qualifies for it dropped from 23 to 21. Two changes landed on the same date: a large rise in the rate itself, and a wider group of workers becoming eligible for it. Younger age bands moved by even more, which was a deliberate part of the policy rather than a side effect of it.

A 9.8% rise, and why it was that large

The National Living Wage is reviewed annually by the Low Pay Commission, which recommends a rate to government against a stated long-term target: two-thirds of median UK earnings for workers aged 21 and over. The 9.8% increase for April 2024 reflected both wage growth in the wider economy and progress toward closing the remaining gap to that target. It was one of the largest single-year percentage increases since the National Living Wage was introduced in 2016.

The age threshold dropped from 23 to 21

Separately from the rate itself, April 2024 also lowered who qualifies for the top rate. Workers aged 21 and 22 — previously paid a lower, separate rate — moved onto the full National Living Wage for the first time. This means the 21-22 age group's pay rise in April 2024 was not simply the 9.8% headline figure; it was the jump from whatever the old 21-22 rate had been, directly onto the new, higher top rate — a considerably larger increase in practice than the published percentage suggests for that specific age band.

*The 2023 National Living Wage applied to ages 23 and over; the threshold only dropped to 21 in April 2024, so the 21-22 age group moved onto this rate for the first time rather than simply receiving a raise on it. The larger percentage rises for younger age bands were a deliberate choice to narrow the gap between age-based rates over time, not an accident of rounding. The current, confirmed rates are published directly on GOV.UK.

What full-time work at the new rate was actually worth

Converting an hourly rate into an annual figure needs a stated number of hours, and the UK's Low Pay Commission has traditionally used a 35-hour reference week for its own "full-time" annual figures — narrower than the 40-hour week more commonly assumed elsewhere:

The difference between the 35-hour and 40-hour columns is nearly £3,000 a year on the top rate alone — a reminder that the assumed hours behind an annual figure matter as much as the hourly rate itself, whether comparing two roles or comparing this year's rate against last year's. The annual salary calculator converts any hourly rate into an annual one using the hours you actually specify, rather than borrowing either convention.

Was the rise ahead of inflation, or just keeping pace with it?

A 9.8% headline rise sounds large on its own, but the number that decides whether low-paid workers were actually better off is the rise relative to inflation over the same period. UK consumer price inflation had cooled substantially by early 2024 compared with the sharp rises of 2022 and 2023, which meant the National Living Wage increase comfortably outpaced price growth for the year — a genuine rise in real purchasing power, not simply a rate keeping up with a rising cost of living. That was a deliberate outcome of the two-thirds-of-median-earnings target the Low Pay Commission works toward, rather than an automatic inflation link of the kind the state pension uses under the triple lock.

Gross pay, tax, and what actually lands in an account

Every figure above is gross, before Income Tax and National Insurance. The wage after tax calculator and the general wage calculator take an hourly rate through to a realistic take-home estimate, which is the number that actually determines what a minimum-wage worker has to spend each month, rather than the headline hourly rate quoted in the April announcement.

Part-time and variable-hours work

Minimum-wage roles are disproportionately part-time or worked across irregular shifts, which makes a flat annual figure a poor substitute for a per-week or per-shift calculation in practice. The pro-rata salary calculator and the general salary calculator both start from actual hours worked rather than assuming a standard week, which matters most for exactly the workers these rates are set to protect.

Checking whether you were actually paid correctly

Underpayment of the minimum wage is more common than the rate tables above might suggest, and it often happens through deductions that push effective pay below the legal floor rather than through the headline hourly rate being wrong outright — a uniform cost taken out of wages, unpaid time spent on mandatory training, or travel between sites during a shift not counted as working time can all quietly reduce an hourly rate that looked correct on paper. HMRC enforces the minimum wage separately from the rate-setting process itself and can order back pay plus a penalty of up to 200% of the arrears where an employer is found to have underpaid. Anyone unsure whether their actual pay matches the rate they are entitled to can check both figures against their payslip and the hours genuinely worked, rather than assuming the two automatically match.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice. National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates are reviewed annually and can change again from April 2025. For a decision about a specific pay situation, check the current rates directly on GOV.UK.