Minimum wage rates
Accommodation offset: how a room changes your minimum wage
Enter your hourly pay, hours, nights and the charge per night: the tool shows the pay that counts once the room is taken into account.
Accommodation offset against your pay
Pay that counts per hour
£12.65
| Offset per day | £11.10 |
| Effect of the room | −£9.80 |
| Minimum for your age | £12.71 |
| Result | £2.20 short |
The accommodation offset is the most an employer can count towards the minimum wage for accommodation it provides: £11.10 a day, or £77.70 a week, since 1 April 2026, and £11.53 a day from 1 April 2027 as announced on 28 October 2026. Accommodation is the only benefit in kind that counts: meals, a car or childcare vouchers never do. The rule works three ways in each pay period. If the room is free, the offset for each day it is provided is added to your pay for the check. If you are charged more than the offset, the excess is taken off the pay that counts, whether the charge is deducted from wages or paid afterwards. If the charge is at or below the offset, it has no effect. In the official example, a worker paid £12.90 an hour for 120 hours and charged £12.50 a night for 21 nights ends up at £12.65 an hour for the minimum wage, below the £12.71 rate.
Paid at least the minimum wage
£21.70
an hour counted, against a minimum of £12.71
| Rate that applies | National Living Wage (21 and over) |
| Rates in force | April 2026 to March 2027 |
| Minimum for 30 hours | £381.30 |
| Pay that counts | £651 |
| Accommodation offset (£11.10 a day) | +£333 |
| Same pay from 1 April 2027 | still enough |
Rule applied: National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, as HMRC explains them in its guidance on calculating the minimum wage. An estimate from what you enter, not a decision by HMRC or a tribunal.
Rates and rules read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The three cases with the official figures
GOV.UK gives one worked example for each case. The figures below use the April 2026 offset.
| Case | Worker | Pay and hours | Accommodation | Pay that counts per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free room | John, 24 | £10.60 × 30 hours a week | 7 nights, free | £13.19 |
| Charge under the offset | Lisa, 20 | £11.00 an hour | £6.50 a day | £11.00, no effect |
| Charge above the offset | Sam, 35 | £12.90 × 120 hours in 3 weeks | £12.50 a day for 21 days | £12.65 |
John's hourly rate of £10.60 alone is below the National Living Wage he is owed at 24. The free room adds £77.70 to his weekly pay for the check, which brings him above £12.71. Sam's case runs the other way: his hourly rate is above the minimum, but the £1.40 a day his rent exceeds the offset, over 21 days, comes off his pay, and the period falls £6.60 short.
The calculation step by step
- Take the pay that counts for the pay reference period, before the accommodation charge.
- Count the days in the period for which accommodation was provided to you.
- If the room is free, add the offset times those days.
- If there is a charge, total it for the period (rent, gas, electricity, furniture, laundry). If it is more than the offset times the days, take the difference off the pay. If it is less or equal, change nothing.
- Divide by the hours of working time and compare with the rate for your age.
The checker below the summary has an accommodation setting that applies these steps with your other pay items: a uniform deduction, tips or a salary sacrifice in the same period are all taken into account together.
Offsets by year
| Rates from | Per day | Per week |
|---|---|---|
| April 2017 | £6.40 | £44.80 |
| April 2018 | £7.00 | £49.00 |
| April 2019 | £7.55 | £52.85 |
| April 2020 | £8.20 | £57.40 |
| April 2021 | £8.36 | £58.52 |
| April 2022 | £8.70 | £60.90 |
| April 2023 | £9.10 | £63.70 |
| April 2024 | £9.99 | £69.93 |
| April 2025 | £10.66 | £74.62 |
| April 2026 | £11.10 | £77.70 |
| From April 2027 | £11.53 | £80.71 |
For a past pay period, use the offset of the year in which that period started. The offset moves on the same day as the wage rates, 1 April, and applies from the first pay period that begins on or after that date.
When a room is linked to the job
The offset matters most in jobs where staff live in, for example in hotels, on farms or in seasonal work. Accommodation counts even if you do not need it to do the job, as long as the employer provides it in one of the ways set out above. If living there is optional and you choose not to, nothing is counted.
Minimum wage per week, month and year
Legal minimum per hour
£12.71
| Rate that applies | National Living Wage (21 and over) |
| Per week | £508.40 |
| Per month | £2,203.07 |
| Per year (52 weeks) | £26,436.80 |
Charges for gas, electricity, furniture and laundry belong to the accommodation charge, whatever name they carry on the payslip. If the numbers do not add up, the underpayment page explains how to raise it, and the pay reference period page how to pick the period to check.