The Wage Rise Isn't The Big Story Here
The National Living Wage rose to £12.71 in April 2026 — but the genuinely bigger change is Statutory Sick Pay becoming payable from day one for every employee, regardless of earnings, removing a rule that had excluded low earners for decades.
The rates, April 2026
The Real Living Wage and London Living Wage are voluntary rates set by the independent Living Wage Foundation, calculated from actual living costs — employers who've signed up are expected to implement them by 1 May 2026. They are consistently higher than the legally mandatory National Living Wage.
The bigger change: Statutory Sick Pay
The rate rise to £123.25 a week is the smaller part of the story. As part of the Employment Rights Act 2025, Statutory Sick Pay reforms remove two long-standing restrictions at once: the previous three-day waiting period (meaning SSP only kicked in from the fourth day of illness) is scrapped, so it's now payable from day one of any absence — and the Lower Earnings Limit, which had excluded anyone earning below a set weekly threshold from qualifying for SSP at all, is removed entirely. This is a genuinely significant expansion of who qualifies for paid sick leave, particularly benefiting the lowest earners and those in part-time or irregular-hours work who were previously excluded from the system altogether.
Day-one rights
Alongside the SSP changes, employees gain the right to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from their very first day of employment, rather than needing to build up service first. Statutory rates for maternity, paternity, adoption, neonatal care, and shared parental leave pay all rise from £187.18 to £194.32 a week, with the earnings threshold to qualify for these types of leave pay rising from £125 to £129 a week.
The Employment Rights Act's rollout
The Employment Rights Act 2025 has passed into law, but is being implemented in stages rather than all at once — the wage rates and SSP reforms above are the April 2026 tranche specifically. Further reforms are due to follow through 2026 and into 2027, with the government having indicated more consultations will precede some of the remaining headline changes before they take effect, meaning the full scope of the Act's effects on UK employment law is still unfolding rather than complete.
Reactions
“The biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, ending the unfairness of low earners being excluded from basic sick pay protection.”
“Removing the waiting period and earnings limit for sick pay represents a genuine new cost for employers, particularly smaller businesses with tighter margins, even where the change is broadly welcomed in principle.”
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