Minimum wage checker for salaried staff (2026/27)
Unpaid overtime quietly drags salaried pay below the legal floor. Check any salary against the hours actually worked - before HMRC does.
The role
Rates from 1 April 2026: £12.71 (21+), £10.85 (18-20), £8.00 (under-18 and apprentice). This is a guide using a 52-week year - HMRC assesses salaried-hours work over the calculation year, and deductions for items connected with the job (uniforms, tools) reduce NMW pay. Accommodation offset: £11.10/day.
A salary can be illegal at the hours actually worked. £24,500 clears nothing: at a nominal 37.5-hour week it's £12.56/h - already below the £12.71 National Living Wage - and at 40 real hours it drops to £11.78/h. The 21+ floor for a 37.5-hour week is £24,785. Minimum wage compliance is measured on hours worked, not hours contracted.
How can a salaried employee be below minimum wage?
Three quiet routes (rates on gov.uk):
- Unpaid overtime. Regular extra hours dilute the effective hourly rate - the most common cause of accidental non-compliance in salaried roles. See is overtime pay required?
- Deductions. Money taken for uniforms, tools or till shortages - and salary-sacrifice arrangements - reduce pay for NMW purposes, even when the worker agreed.
- April creep. Rates rise every 1 April; a salary that cleared last year's floor can silently fall below the new one.
What are the minimum salary equivalents for 2026/27?
| Real weekly hours | Minimum annual salary |
|---|---|
| 35 hours | £23,132 |
| 37.5 hours | £24,785 |
| 40 hours | £26,437 |
| 45 hours | £29,741 |
What happens if you get it wrong?
HMRC enforces: arrears repaid at current rates, penalties of up to 200% of the underpayment, and public naming. The fix is cheap by comparison - track real hours (a timesheet, not a guess), review salaries each April against the new rates on our statutory rates table, and treat persistent overtime as a rota problem: TOIL or pay, not free hours.
This calculator applies the statutory rules as published and shows its working, but it cannot know your contracts, your policies or anything unusual about the case. Treat the figure as a starting point, and take advice on anything contested or expensive.
Real hours, on the record
CoDash's timesheets, overtime tracking and working patterns show the hours people actually do - the evidence NMW compliance is built on.