Whats the minimum wage 2025? Start with the headline rate

If you are looking up whats the minimum wage 2025, the headline figure is £12.21 an hour. That was the National Living Wage rate for workers aged 21 and over from 1 April 2025, set out in the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and confirmed in GOV.UK National Living Wage guidance. The ONS used the same £12.21 reference rate in its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) at the April 2025 snapshot, and £11.44 at the previous snapshot.

The statutory rates are age-banded, so "the minimum wage" is really a set of rates rather than one number:

• £12.21 an hour for workers aged 21 and over (the National Living Wage)
• £10.00 an hour for workers aged 18 to 20
• £7.55 an hour for workers aged 16 to 17
• £7.55 an hour for apprentices aged 16 to 18, and for those aged 19 and over in the first year of their apprenticeship

The same regulations raised the accommodation offset, which is the maximum an employer can count towards pay when living accommodation is provided, to £10.66 a day. That matters if you are paid partly in kind rather than purely in cash.

Minimum wage rates are normally uprated each April, so the rate that applies to you depends on the pay period you are being paid for. Our salary data reference point for age 21 and over in the current year is around £12.71 an hour, but the statutory position is whatever GOV.UK currently publishes.

Converting an hourly rate into an annual and monthly salary

The conversion rule is simple: annual pay ≈ hourly rate × hours per week × 52. Everything hangs on the hours assumption, so it is worth stating it openly rather than assuming a full-time week.

The hours assumption: 37.5 hours a week

At £12.21 an hour on a 37.5-hour week: £12.21 × 37.5 × 52 = £23,809.50 a year, or about £1,984 a month gross. On a 40-hour week the same hourly rate gives £25,396.80, roughly £2,116 a month. That £1,587 difference between the two weekly hours shows why the hours figure matters as much as the rate.

This maths assumes a steady contracted week in which every contracted hour is paid, with no unpaid overtime, unpaid breaks or salary sacrifice. Rota patterns, term-time-only contracts, zero-hours work and holiday pay calculated on average earnings can all pull actual pay above or below the annualised figure. Part-time workers should pro-rate: 22.5 hours a week at £12.21 is three-fifths of the 37.5-hour result, about £14,286 a year. To run your own numbers, use our hourly calculator.

Quick conversion table on a 37.5-hour week

Hourly rate	Annual (gross)	Monthly (gross)
£12.21 – National Living Wage, age 21+	£23,810	£1,984
£12.51 – NHS Band 1 (closed to new entrants)	£24,395	£2,033
£12.75 – NHS Band 3, entry step	£24,863	£2,072
£13.60 – NHS Band 3, step 2	£26,520	£2,210
£15.88 – NHS Band 5, entry step	£30,966	£2,581
£19.67 – median full-time hourly pay	£38,357	£3,196

How the minimum wage compares with typical UK pay

ONS ASHE figures for April 2025 put median gross annual earnings for full-time employees at £39,039, up from £37,439 a year earlier. Median weekly earnings for full-time employees were £766.60, and median hourly pay excluding overtime was £19.67. The ONS low and high pay bulletin gives median hourly pay across all employee jobs as £17.96, with 2.5% of employee jobs counted as low paid at below £11.97 – two-thirds of median hourly pay and the lowest share since the series began in 1997. High-paid jobs made up 23.2% of employee jobs.

Put simply, a full-time worker on the 2025 National Living Wage earns roughly £23,810 a year, against a full-time median of £39,039. The ONS also notes that around 447,000 employee jobs, about 1.5%, were paid below the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage rates, while cautioning that this is a survey estimate and not a measure of non-compliance, because eligibility cannot always be determined from survey data.

The ONS bulletin points out that the highest point of the hourly earnings distribution sits around £12.40, a cluster made up of jobs paid the National Living Wage and jobs paid the real Living Wage of £12.60 outside London, as defined by the Living Wage Foundation. That voluntary rate is higher than the statutory floor, and London has a separate, higher real Living Wage figure.

On tax, the Personal Allowance is £12,570 of gross income. A full-time worker on the 2025 National Living Wage is therefore above the allowance and pays income tax and National Insurance on the balance, so take-home pay is lower than the gross annual figure shown in the table.

NHS pay bands as a second benchmark

NHS Employers publishes 2025/26 pay scales with both annual and hourly rates. Band 1 is £12.51 an hour but is closed to new entrants, with a published annual rate of £24,465. Band 3 starts at £12.75 and rises to £13.60 at step 2, Band 4 is £14.06, Band 5 runs from £15.88 through £17.13 to £19.33, and Band 6 is £19.78. On a 37.5-hour week, which is the standard NHS week, those translate to roughly £24,863 at Band 3 entry and about £37,694 at the top of Band 5.

Overtime, London weighting and other extras

Overtime is normally paid separately from the basic hourly rate and often at a premium set by your contract, so it is not included in any of the annualised figures above. London weighting – Higher Cost Area Supplements in the NHS – adds to pay for staff in and around London, and NHS Employers states that the annual rate inclusive of HCAS is the higher value of the two. Never compare a London-weighted rate with a national one, and always convert the rate that actually appears on your payslip. There is more on pay structures and benchmarks in our salary articles.

What this means for your own payslip

Start with the gross hourly rate that applies to you, including any age band, regional supplement or supervisory increment. Multiply by your contracted paid hours, then by 52, then divide by 12 for a monthly figure. From there, deduct income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and any salary sacrifice, and remember that holiday pay, sick pay and overtime rules can move the final number. If your hours vary week to week, an average over a full rota cycle will be more reliable than a single week's figure.

The short answer

For age 21 and over, the National Living Wage was £12.21 an hour from April 2025 – about £23,810 a year, or £1,984 a month gross, on a 37.5-hour week, and about £25,397 on a 40-hour week. Younger workers had lower statutory rates, and everyone above the Personal Allowance pays tax and National Insurance on top of the conversion maths.