From 1 April 2026, a £12.71 hour costs £16.36

Staff Cost per Hour Calculator

The wage floor is the start, not the cost: holiday accrual, employer NIC and the pension land on every hour before it reaches the rota. Price the loaded rate.

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Staff Cost per Hour Calculator

The wage floor is the start, not the cost. Holiday, employer National Insurance and the pension land on every hour before it reaches the rota.

£
From 1 April 2026: £12.71 at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, £8.00 under 18 and apprentices.
hours
Sets how the NIC-free and pension-free slices spread across the hours.
hours

What sits on top of the headline rate

Holiday pay accrues at 12.07 per cent: 5.6 weeks of leave spread over the 46.4 weeks actually worked. It is not optional and it is not in the headline rate.

Employer National Insurance runs at 15 per cent above £5,000 a year, and the minimum pension at 3 per cent above the qualifying band. Both scale with every pay rise, which is why a 50p rise never costs 50p.

Cost the rota at the loaded rate, not the headline. A kitchen porter shift priced at £12.71 an hour is under-priced by more than a quarter, and thirty shifts a week compound that fast.

Take the workbook

All four wage floors loaded in Excel, a build-up you can point at any rate, and the shift and rota costs that follow.

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