Real Living Wage rises to £14.10 an hour, and £15.45 in London, for almost half a million workers
The voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation rises 65p an hour from Thursday, covering workers aged 18 and over at close to 17,000 accredited employers. Employers have until 1 May 2027 to bring the new rates into pay packets.
Almost half a million workers are in line for a pay rise after the Living Wage Foundation raised the real Living Wage to £14.10 an hour across the United Kingdom and £15.45 an hour in London.
The increase is 65p an hour on both rates, a rise of 4.8 per cent outside London and 4.4 per cent in the capital. The real Living Wage is a voluntary rate, independently calculated from the cost of living, and applies to workers aged 18 and over. It is paid by close to 17,000 accredited employers. The new rates apply from Thursday 15 October, and accredited employers have until 1 May 2027 to implement them.
On a 37.5-hour week worked across the year, the new rate is worth £27,495 a year outside London and £30,127.50 in London, an increase of £1,267.50 a year on the previous rates. Set against the statutory national living wage of £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, in place since April 2026, a full-time worker on the real Living Wage earns £2,710.50 a year more outside London and £5,343 more in the capital. The statutory minimum is a separate, legal floor and is not set by the Foundation.
A voluntary rate can only lift the workers whose employers choose to pay it.British Journal analysis
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Living Wage campaign. The Foundation says the movement has put nearly £5 billion in extra earnings into low-paid workers' pay since it began, including almost £700 million over the past year alone, and that more than 2,000 employers joined the accreditation in the past year.
The announcement came with evidence of how tight household budgets remain. Research published by the Foundation found that 61 per cent of low-paid workers had cut back on food or heating, fallen behind on bills or housing payments, or taken out a payday loan to cover essentials over the past year, and that 37 per cent had used a foodbank.
The TUC welcomed the increase while arguing it also exposed the distance still to travel. The Foundation separately published rates based on the Minimum Income Standard, putting the wage needed for an acceptable standard of living at £18.30 an hour across the UK and £20.90 in London. Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said the rise was welcome for those covered, but that “too many working people are still struggling to get by”.
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