Minimum wage and holiday pay checker

Which rate applies

The rate depends on the worker's age, not on the job: the same cleaning shift has a different legal minimum for a 19-year-old and a 25-year-old. Keep a record of each worker's date of birth.

The National Living Wage covers anyone aged 21 or over and is £12.71 an hour.

Apprentices are on the apprentice rate if they are under 19, or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. After that first year, an apprentice aged 19 or over gets the rate for their age.

The rates change on 1 April every year. Last year's adult rate (April 2025 to March 2026) was £12.21, so a rate agreed in 2025 may now be unlawful.

Holiday pay in plain English

• 5.6 weeks a year. Almost all workers get 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. For someone on a 5-day week that is 28 days. You can count bank holidays as part of it.
• Part-time, regular hours. They get 5.6 times their usual working week. Someone on 3 days a week gets 16.8 days.
• Irregular hours. Holiday builds up at 12.07 per cent of the hours worked in each pay period. That figure is 5.6 weeks divided by the 46.4 weeks a year that are worked.
• Agency workers have the same 5.6 weeks from day one. The agency pays it, and it is built into the agency's hourly charge.

Holiday pay is paid on top of the minimum, not counted towards it. A rate that meets the minimum only once holiday pay is added is too low.

Common mistakes when setting a rate

• Pricing a contract at last year's adult rate after 1 April.
• Treating holiday pay as included in the hourly rate (often called "rolled-up" holiday pay). It is only lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers, paid at 12.07 per cent and shown separately on the payslip. Workers on regular hours must get paid time off instead.
• Forgetting that uniform or equipment deductions can take pay below the minimum.

To see what a worker really costs once holiday pay, employer National Insurance and pension are added, use the staffing cost calculator. For agency staff priced by booking length, use our instant price calculator.