What are the changes?

The following rates are effective from 1 April 2025:

The apprentice rate applies to people aged under 19, or people over 19 but in the first year of their apprenticeship.

If the apprentice is older than 19, and have finished their first year of their apprenticeship, they are entitled to the relevant minimum wage for their age group.

For further information, go to GOV.UK.

Minimum wage check

You can use the minimum wage check option to ensure you pay your employees the minimum wage, including apprentices.

New rates at year end

To comply with HMRC rules, the effective date of new rates at year end depends on your processing date. Your software's Minimum Wage Check uses rates from the start of the tax period for each pay run.

This year, if your processing date falls on April 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th which are in tax week 52, the rates as of 28 March 28 apply. If your processing date is on April 5th, which is in week 53, the new rates apply.

For monthly payrolls, the new rates apply when you process tax month 1.

If you'd like to start paying the new rates earlier, you can manually amend employees pay in Enter Payments. However, your software will only validate payments against the new rates based on the dates above. 

When do employees' rates change following a birthday?

If an employee has a birthday which moves them into a new NMW category, their new rate applies in the next full tax period after their birthday.

For NMW, it's when you pay employees that decides the rate rather than the period you're paying them for (if you pay in arrears).

For example, an employee is paid monthly and turns 21 years old on 23 August:

• Pay tax month 5 (6 August - 5 September) at their prior rate for 18-20 years old
• Pay tax month 6 (6 September - 5 October) at their new rate for 21 and over

For help with checking tax periods, visit our tax week and tax month calendar article.