Rate of record
National Living Wage vs London Living Wage
The statutory NLW is £12.71/hr UK-wide. The voluntary London Living Wage is £14.80/hr, set each November by the Living Wage Foundation to reflect London housing costs. The boundary is roughly the M25.
The headline rates
- National Living Wage (21+): £12.71/hr - statutory, applies UK-wide from 1 April 2026gov.uk
- UK Real Living Wage (voluntary): £13.45/hr - set November 2025 by the Living Wage Foundationlivingwage.org.uk
- London Living Wage (voluntary): £14.80/hr - roughly 10% above the UK Real Living Wage
Annual gap for a 37.5-hour London worker
At 37.5 hours per week across 52 weeks, the cash difference between the statutory floor and the London Living Wage is meaningful:
- NLW annual gross: £24,785
- LLW annual gross: £28,860
- Difference: £4,075 per year, before tax and NI
For an LLW-paying employer with one full-time band-21+ worker, that is the floor uplift over statutory; the after-tax pickup is smaller because most of the increment sits inside the 20% basic-rate band plus 8% Class 1 NI.
Why London has its own number
The Living Wage Foundation publishes two rates each November: a UK figure and a London figure. The London uplift is intended to track the city's housing-cost premium and longer median commute, using the same Minimum Income Standard methodology as the UK ratelivingwage.org.uk. The London premium has sat in a 9-11% band above the UK rate for most of the last decade and is currently about 10%.
The boundary in practice is the Greater London Authority area, which is roughly the M25. Accredited employers pay the LLW rate to workers whose normal place of work is inside that boundary, and the UK Real Living Wage everywhere else.
Who pays the London Living Wage
Major LLW payers include the Greater London Authority, all 32 London boroughs (most via Living Wage accreditation), Transport for London on its directly-employed and tier-one cleaning and security contracts, most London universities, all London NHS trusts via the NHS Pay Review Body floor, and a long list of City employers including all big-four professional-services firms and most Lloyd's syndicates.
For a worker, accreditation is the signal that matters: the Living Wage Foundation directory is the public list. If the employer is on it, the worker is owed the London rate inside the M25 and the UK rate outside, including on third-party contracts that spend more than two hours per day on the employer's premises.
What the statutory NLW guarantees instead
The London Living Wage is voluntary. The statutory floor in London is the same £12.71/hr NLW as anywhere else in the UK; an unaccredited London employer paying NLW is not breaking minimum-wage law. The Fair Work Agency enforces against the statutory rate only.