National Minimum Wage for Hospitality
Written and reviewed by the Hospitality Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 27 July 2026.
The minimum wage is one of the most heavily enforced areas in hospitality, and kitchens and front-of-house teams are a frequent focus. The rates change every April, and getting the age bands, the accommodation offset and unpaid time wrong can turn a small error into a large arrears bill. This guide sets out the 2025/26 figures and the traps that catch food and drink employers.
The wage a worker is legally owed depends on their age, whether you provide accommodation, and how you treat trial shifts and time spent before and after service. Below we work through each. Where you would rather the calculation and the filing were handled for you, our hospitality payroll service runs it.
The 2025/26 Wage Rates by Age Band
From 1 April 2025 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.21 an hour. Those aged 18 to 20 must be paid at least £10.00, workers aged 16 to 17 at least £7.55, and apprentices at least £7.55. The apprentice rate applies to apprentices under 19, or those over 19 in the first year of their apprenticeship.
The bands step up as a worker has a birthday or, for apprentices, as their apprenticeship progresses. A common error is leaving a worker on the 18 to 20 rate after they turn 21, so we check ages against the pay period. The current figures are published on the gov.uk minimum wage rates page.
The Accommodation Offset
Accommodation is the only benefit in kind that can count toward the minimum wage. From 1 April 2025 the offset is £10.66 a day, or £74.62 a week. If you charge a live-in worker more than the offset for their room, the excess is treated as reducing their pay, which can drag it below the legal floor.
No other perk counts. Meals on shift, uniforms or travel cannot be set against the minimum wage, so only accommodation within the offset limit is neutral. The rules are set out on the gov.uk accommodation offset page.
Unpaid Trial Shifts and the Law
Trial shifts are a grey area that often crosses into unlawful non-payment. A short, observed trial as part of a genuine recruitment process can sometimes sit outside working time, but a trial where the person does real work that benefits the business is working time and must be paid. The longer the trial and the more it resembles a normal shift, the harder it is to justify not paying it.
We treat any trial where a candidate is rostered, works a full service, or covers for staff as paid work. The safe course is to pay for genuine work and keep trials short and clearly observational.
Tips and the Minimum Wage Boundary
Tips cannot be used to make up the minimum wage. Gratuities sit on top of the legal floor rather than counting toward it, so paying £11.00 an hour and topping up with tips does not meet a £12.21 obligation. The wage and the tips are two separate amounts.
This is where minimum wage and the Tips Act meet: tips must reach staff in full and separately from the wage that satisfies the minimum. Blending the two is a frequent cause of underpayment findings.
Common Minimum Wage Underpayments in Kitchens
Most underpayments are not deliberate. They come from unpaid time: staff clocking off then cleaning down, arriving early to set up, or staying late to cash up. That time is working time and must be paid at the applicable rate.
Deductions for tills that come up short, for breakages, or for a uniform the worker must buy can also pull pay below the floor. We look at total pay divided by hours actually worked, because that is the figure HMRC checks.