Published following today’s Low Pay Commission (LPC) recommendation on the 2026 National Living Wage.
Quick take: For a full-time worker (37.5 hrs/week), the rise is roughly an extra £975 a year (gross). Whether that feels like a real pay rise depends on inflation and local costs.
What’s changing in 2026?
Headline: the LPC recommends raising the NLW from £12.21 to around £12.71 per hour from April 2026 — a rise of about 50p per hour (≈4.1%).
Interactive chart: NLW hourly rate (left axis) and CPI inflation (right axis), 2024–2026.
Put simply: A 4.1% pay rise is positive — but if prices rise faster in your area (especially rent or food), the extra on your payslip might not stretch as far.
NLW vs inflation — what “real-terms” means
Official forecasts put inflation at around 4.1% (mid-2025) falling to about 2.1% in 2026. If that happens, the NLW rise (4.1%) would give a modest real-terms gain of roughly ~2% — about £2 extra per £100 of spending. Helpful, but not huge.
Interactive chart: typical household cost rises vs the NLW increase (illustrative).
- Groceries: food inflation has been running higher than headline CPI in 2025 — this reduces how far a general pay rise goes for essentials.
- Energy: industry forecasts show continued pressure on household bills — meaning some households could see bigger cost rises than the NLW increase in absolute terms.
- Rent: often the biggest factor — where rents rise faster than inflation, a pay rise can be quickly absorbed.
Real-terms example: If your weekly shop increases by £1–£3 and you gain £10–£19 pre-tax a week, you can cover groceries — but big bills will still bite.
How much extra will you actually see?
| Hours / week | Extra (gross / year) | Approx extra (net / month) |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | ~£520 | £30–£40 |
| 30 | ~£780 | £45–£57 |
| 37.5 | ~£975 | ~£57 |
Perspective: In expensive cities the monthly net gain buys less (housing dominates). In lower-cost areas it stretches further for bills or saving.
Wages go up, hurray. Then other things go up to cover wages, couple that with employer national insurance rise, companies then employ less people and more end up on nlw rather than a decent wage above nlw making those who can get a job, poorer. Welcome to socialist communism.
Won’t even touch the sides. Got six kids
Why did you have six kids if you can’t afford them?
I earn >£100k and can only afford 2!