Minimum Wage Arrears

Check pay for one pay reference period against the National Minimum Wage rate that should have applied, and work out the arrears owed.

Your details

All values calculated using NMW rates from 2026-04-01 figures.

Which rate applies to you?

The apprentice rate only applies if you are under 19, or in the first year of your apprenticeship. After that the rate for your age applies.

Hours worked in the pay period

Include time spent training, travelling between assignments, and any required time on the premises before or after your shift.

Gross pay received for that period

Before tax and National Insurance, but after any deduction or payment that counts as a reduction for minimum wage purposes — such as uniform costs.

How often are you paid?

Fill in your details and press Calculate.

How this is calculated

The National Minimum Wage is checked over a pay reference period — the period your pay covers, up to a maximum of a month. The test is total pay divided by total hours worked in that period, not the hourly rate written on your contract, so bonuses, unpaid overtime and deductions all move the answer.

The calculator divides the gross pay you received by the hours you worked to get your effective hourly rate, compares it with the rate for your band from 2026-04-01 — £12.71 for 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, £8.00 under 18 and £8.00 for apprentices — and reports the difference. Arrears are the required pay for those hours less the pay actually received, rounded to the nearest penny. The annualised figure simply repeats the shortfall across the pay periods in a year and is an illustration, not a claim value.

Arrears are repaid at the current rate, not the historical one. Section 17 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 values a past underpayment using the rate in force when the employer puts it right. An hour underpaid three years ago is therefore repaid at today's rate, which is why HMRC's arrears figures are often higher than the raw shortfall at the time. That is exactly what this tool does: it applies the current rates to whatever period you enter.

What this does not model: accommodation offset, salaried-hours or output-work rules, apprenticeship year tracking, or the treatment of tips and service charges. It looks at a single pay reference period — you can claim up to six years of arrears in the civil courts, or two years for an unlawful deduction from wages claim at an employment tribunal, which must be started within three months less one day of the last underpayment.

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