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The U.K. just hiked its minimum wage again.

Published: Nov. 26, 2025 at 2:09 a.m. ET

British workers will get a bump up in the minimum wage. Photo: ben stansall/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Key Points

The U.K. national living wage will increase by 4.1% to £12.71 per hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over, effective April 2026.
The U.K.’s new national living wage of approximately $16.60 per hour places it among the highest minimum wages in developed economies.
The U.S. federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, with many states setting higher rates, such as California and New York above $15 per hour.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves faces some tough choices on Wednesday when she sets out a budget that strives to narrow the country’s fiscal gap without damaging growth.

But before that, she’s announced a move not directly related to the government finances that at least should prove popular with workers: an increase of 4.1% to £12.71 an hour for what’s called the national living wage.

The NLW is a minimum wage that applies to eligible workers aged 21 and over, which is roughly 2.4 million low-paid workers in the U.K, according to the government. The new rate will come into effect at the start of April next year.

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Converting to U.S. dollars that means an NLW of about $16.60 an hour, which as the chart shows — using data from earlier this year — puts the U.K. wage floor near the top of other developed economies.

Notably absent from the ranking are the more socially-minded Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, who do not have statutory minimum wages — though that’s because they tend to have a stronger system of worker collective bargaining and sectoral wage-floor agreements.

Also notable is that the U.S. minimum wage remains among the lowest at $7.25 per hour, though that is the Federal rate and many states set their own rates.

The latest summary from the Congressional Research Service, covering 2024, shows that most states have a minimum wage above the Federal level, notably California and New York, which are above $15 an hour.

And floors are set to rise in some states, such as Hawaii where the minimum wage is to increase to $16.00 per hour on January 1, 2026, and to $18.00 per hour on January 1, 2028, according to the CRS.

However, as the map shows, a number of states have minimum wage rates of less than the federal rate.

The average wage for all workers in the U.S was $36.67 per hour in October.