National minimum wage and other statutory rate increases

The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, as well as other statutory payments, increase in the first week of April

National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW)

·       NLW for workers aged 21 and over: £12.21

·       NMW for workers aged 18–20: £10

·       Young workers rate for workers aged over compulsory school age –17: £7.55

·       Apprentices under 19, or over 19 and in the first year of the apprenticeship: £7.55

·       Accommodation offset (daily): £10.66

·       Accommodation offset (weekly): £74.62

Employers must pay this increase on time, in the next “pay reference period” after the increase has taken effect. This may mean that pay does not increase for the individual until some way into April. The pay reference period is the period within which the pay is calculated. For example, if an employee gets paid monthly on the 15th, the old rate will continue to apply until the next pay reference period, beginning on 16 April. Therefore, the old rate remains in place between 1–15 April, and the new rate from 16 April.

Family friendly statutory payments

Alongside minimum wage increases, there are also other increases that will take effect in April, including family friendly payments, which from 6 April 2025 increased to £187.18 from £184.03 (this includes maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental, parental bereavement and for the first time, neonatal care pay).

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and the lower earnings limit (LEL)

SSP rose, on 6 April 2025, from £116.75 to £118.75. The LEL (the threshold of average earnings in order to qualify for SSP, SMP etc increased from £123 to £125 per week.

Statutory Guarantee Pay (SGP)

SGP is the payment made while an employee is laid off (not provided with any work due to a temporary reduction) and is a daily rate paid on any days where an employee is laid off, to a maximum of a normal working week, every 13 weeks. The daily rate from 6 April 2025 is £39.

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