Minimum wage from April 2026: what hospitality employers need to pay

The minimum wage went up on 1 April 2026, and hospitality is where most minimum wage workers are. Getting the headline rate right is the easy part. The underpayments HMRC finds in pubs and restaurants usually come from the details: uniform costs, unpaid time before and after shifts, tips being used to top up pay, live-in accommodation charges, and staff moving up an age band mid-month.

These rates and rules apply across the whole UK.

Minimum wage rates from 1 April 2026

Rates change on 1 April every year. Check gov.uk for the latest if you're reading this after March 2027.

Who gets the apprentice rate

Apprentices get the apprentice rate if they're under 19, or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. Once an apprentice aged 19 or over finishes their first year, they must get the rate for their age. A 22-year-old commis chef in the second year of an apprenticeship is on £12.71, not £8.00.

Birthdays matter

When a member of staff moves up an age band, their rate goes up. Check dates of birth when you set people up on payroll and put birthdays in your diary. Turning 18 or 21 mid-month is one of the most common reasons for small, accidental underpayments.

What it costs a venue

The jump from £12.21 to £12.71 is 50p an hour for anyone 21 and over. For an 18 to 20 year old it's 85p. On a team working 600 hours a week at the adult rate, that's £300 a week more before employer National Insurance, pension and holiday pay. See our labour cost percentage guide for how to keep wages in line with sales.

Tips don't count towards the minimum wage

This catches people out. Tips, gratuities, service charges and cover charges paid by customers don't count towards minimum wage pay, even if they go through payroll or a tronc. You must pay at least the minimum wage from your own money, and tips sit on top.

Since 1 October 2024 you also have to pass on all tips to workers without deductions, under a fair, written tipping policy. Our tips and tronc guide covers that, and the extra consultation duty expected under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Uniform and deduction traps

HMRC's guidance is clear:

• If you require a uniform and the worker pays you for it, or you deduct the cost from wages, that money is taken off their pay for minimum wage purposes.
• If the worker buys the required uniform from a shop, the cost still counts against them. It's expenditure in connection with their job.
• General requirements count too. Telling bar staff to wear black trousers and black shoes they buy themselves is still a requirement you've set.
• Wear-and-tear charges for uniform reduce minimum wage pay.
• Charges for damage, loss or non-return don't reduce minimum wage pay if the loss was down to the worker's misconduct and the charge is in their contract.

A worked example

A 21-year-old server is paid exactly £12.71 an hour and works 20 hours in a weekly pay period, so they earn £254.20. You require a branded polo shirt and deduct £30 for it that week.

For minimum wage purposes, their pay is £254.20 minus £30 = £224.20. Divided by 20 hours, that's £11.21 an hour, which is £1.50 below the National Living Wage. You've underpaid them, even though their hourly rate on paper is correct. Spreading the deduction over several weeks doesn't fix it if each week still takes them below £12.71.

The fix is simple: either supply required uniform free or pay staff enough above the minimum that the cost doesn't take them under it for the pay period.

The same logic applies to other deductions and payments related to the job. Check anything that leaves a worker on or near the minimum with less than the legal rate per hour.

The accommodation offset for live-in staff

Hotels, country pubs and seasonal venues often provide accommodation. The accommodation offset is the only benefit in kind that counts towards minimum wage pay.

• From April 2026 it's £11.10 a day (£77.70 a week).
• Free accommodation: the offset amount is added to the worker's pay for minimum wage purposes.
• You charge at or below the offset: no effect on their minimum wage pay.
• You charge more than the offset: the difference is taken off their pay for minimum wage purposes.

Meals don't count. Free staff food is welcome but it doesn't count towards the minimum wage.

Time you must pay for

Minimum wage is owed for every hour of working time, not just the hours the doors are open. In hospitality that includes:

• Opening and closing tasks: cashing up, temperature checks, cleaning down, setting the cellar.
• Training: GOV.UK is clear that time spent training is working time.
• Briefings and staff meetings you require people to attend.
• Trial shifts that go beyond a short, genuine trial. GOV.UK's view is that a trial lasting more than one day is likely to need paying in all but very exceptional circumstances.

If your rota says 5pm to 11pm but the close-down routinely runs to 11:45, the extra 45 minutes is working time. Over a month, unpaid closes are a common source of underpayment.

Keeping minimum wage records

You must keep records showing you paid at least the minimum wage. For records created on or after 1 April 2021, keep them for at least six years. Records should show total pay (including deductions and allowances) and total hours worked, and you must be able to produce each pay reference period's records in a single document if asked.

If HMRC finds underpayment, you'll have to pay the arrears straight away, pay a fine, and you may be publicly named.

A minimum wage checklist for hospitality

• Every worker's age and rate checked on payroll, birthdays diarised.
• Apprentices aged 19+ moved to their age rate after year one.
• No tips or service charge used to make up basic pay.
• Required uniform supplied free, or pay high enough to absorb the cost.
• Accommodation charges checked against the £11.10 daily offset.
• Opening, closing, training and meeting time paid.
• Actual finish times recorded, not just rota'd times.
• Records kept six years.

Where ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete isn't a payroll system and won't calculate pay. What it does is make the hours visible and recorded. Labour cost shows as you build the rota, so you can see what a week costs before you publish it. Split shifts (up to four time blocks a day) mean the 30-minute set-up before service can be rota'd as its own block rather than quietly unpaid.

Switch on clocking in and out and staff clock in and out on their phone or the shared tablet behind the bar. You see hours actually worked against the rota, so the close that ran 45 minutes over shows up, and you can download hours as a spreadsheet with a total per person to hand to whoever runs your payroll. Opening and closing checklists are named and timestamped too.

£1.49 per staff member per month, every feature included, free for 60 days with no card needed.

This guide is general information, not legal advice: for a specific case, speak to Acas or an employment adviser, or use HMRC's minimum wage guidance.