Statutory Pay, Minimum Wage and Deduction Thresholds 2026-27
If you employ staff, keeping up with changes to statutory pay rates is an important part of running your payroll. From April 2026, new rates apply for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and other statutory payments.
To make things easier, we’ve brought together the key 2026/27 statutory pay rates below, so you can quickly check what’s changed and what you may need to pay your employees. We update this information yearly, so you'll always have the correct information.
Key 2026/27 Statutory Pay Rates:
- Personal Allowance is £12,570 for the year. Employees can earn £1,048 monthly or £242 weekly free of tax
- The standard tax code is 1257L
- 20% tax is due on earnings between £12,571 and £37,700 per year
- 40% tax is due on earnings between £37,701 and £125,140 per year
- 45% tax is due on earnings in excess of £125,140 per year
- Employer National Insurance contributions at 15% are due on employee's earnings over £5,000 per annum, £417 per month or £96 per week
- No Employer NI contributions are due on earnings of apprentices under 25, employees aged under 21, or veterans of the Armed Forces in the first 12 months of their civilian employment
- Employee National Insurance contributions at 8% are due on their earnings over £12,570 per annum, £1,048 per month or £242 per week
- Employment Allowance of up to £10,500 per annum is available to eligible employers to reduce their Employers National Insurance liability.
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is £123.25 per week or 80% of normal weekly earnings whichever is the lower. The amount due to the employee is based on the number of working days in the week. SSP is payable from Day 1 of employment.
- Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP), Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) is 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks followed by £194.32 per week or 90% of the employees average weekly earnings (whichever is the lower)
- Employers can recover 92% of Statutory payments (excluding SSP) if Class 1 NICs for the previous tax year are £45,000 or above but can recover 109% if they are below £45,000 for the previous tax year.
- Age 21+ - £12.71 per hour
- Age 18-20 - £10.85 per hour
- Age under 18 - £8.00 per hour
- Apprentice under 19 or over 19 in this first year of apprenticeship - £8.00 per hour
