The Autumn Budget 2026 and your restaurant: minimum wage, rates, dates

You have read "£13.21" in the headlines and want to know what it means for next April's wage bill, and whether the rates news helps you or only the pub down the road.

From 1 April 2027 the National Living Wage (21 and over) rises from £12.71 to £13.21 an hour, the 18 to 20 rate to £11.27, and the 16 to 17 and apprentice rate to £8.31. In England, small retail, hospitality and leisure sites pay no business rates up to £18,000 rateable value (tapering to £21,000), pubs get 35% relief, and eligible bills are capped at inflation for two years. VAT and employer National Insurance did not change.

Our analysis of official data shows how unevenly that lands. The new £13.21 reaches between 4 and 5 in every 10 food and drink service jobs, and 58% of restaurant properties in England are valued too high for the new small business relief. This guide puts numbers on each change for a 60-cover restaurant, lists the dates, and ends with a checklist for April.

Last checked: 4 November 2026.

What are the new minimum wage rates from April 2027?

The government accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendations in full. The rates were published on 28 October 2026 in Minimum wage rates for 2027 (Low Pay Commission, gov.uk). Each band rises by 3.9%. The current rates come from The National Minimum Wage in 2026 (gov.uk).

The rise follows the pay reference period. Acas says the higher rate "starts to apply from the next 'pay reference period' after the increase". Acas's own example: if each pay period runs from the 16th of one month to the 15th of the next, the old rate covers 1 to 15 April and the new rate starts on 16 April. Nothing stops you moving everyone on 1 April to keep it simple.

Birthdays move people between bands. A worker who turns 18 or 21 is entitled to the higher rate from the next pay reference period, and so is an apprentice who turns 19 after finishing the first year of their apprenticeship. Put staff birthdays in your payroll calendar, not in someone's head.

How much will the April 2027 rise cost a restaurant?

Here is a worked example for a 60-cover neighbourhood restaurant with 14 staff. Every input is an assumption, so swap in your own.

• 2 salaried managers paid well above the minimum (not affected).
• 8 staff aged 21 and over, averaging 28 hours a week at the minimum.
• 2 staff aged 18 to 20, averaging 24 hours a week.
• 2 staff aged 16 or 17, averaging 16 hours a week.
• Holiday pay accrued at 12.07% of hours worked, the statutory 5.6 weeks expressed as a share of the 46.4 weeks worked (the gov.uk irregular hours method).
• Employer National Insurance at 15% on the 21-and-over uplift. Employers pay 0% on staff under 21 below the upper secondary threshold of £50,270 a year, according to gov.uk rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027.
• A 3% employer pension contribution on the 21-and-over uplift (including holiday pay), assuming those eight are auto-enrolled at the minimum.
• Trade of 70 covers a day, 6 days a week, at £35 a head including VAT.

That is about £788 a month, roughly 1.5% of this restaurant's £637,000 of sales before VAT. On 21,840 covers a year it works out at 43p a cover before VAT, or 52p once VAT is added. On a £35 average spend that is a 1.5% price rise just to stand still, before food inflation. The menu price calculator shows what a new price does to each dish's margin.

What the table leaves out matters too:

• Differentials. If your supervisors earn £13.25 today, they will be 4p above the new floor. Most owners keep a gap, and the cost of doing so can rival the minimum-wage rise itself. The next section shows how many jobs sit in that squeeze.
• Pay set as tips plus a low base. Tips, service charge and tronc cannot count towards the minimum wage. Our tronc and Tips Act guide explains why.
• The rota. The cheapest response is fewer quiet hours, not lower pay. The labour cost percentage guide shows how to set a target.

How far up your pay scale does £13.21 reach?

In food and drink service, roughly to the middle of the pay scale, which is why the rise costs restaurants more than its 3.9% suggests.

Hourly pay excluding overtime, UK, April 2026:

Source: our analysis of the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 4.6a (published 22 October 2026), industry code 56 against all employees.

Read across the table:

• Between 40% and 50% of food and drink service jobs were paid below £13.21 in April 2026, because £13.21 falls between the 40th percentile (£12.86) and the median (£13.25). Across the whole economy the share is between 10% and 20%.
• The 30th percentile is exactly £12.71, this year's adult rate. A large block of the sector is paid at the floor and moves with it.
• The 60th percentile is £13.88, 67p above the new floor. Staff a step above minimum, such as supervisors and experienced bartenders, are where the differential squeeze lands.

ASHE counts payroll pay, including under-21 and apprentice rates and some extras that do not count towards the minimum wage, so treat it as a guide, not compliance data.

The decision rule: list every hourly rate you pay below £13.88. Those staff either move to the new floor or end up less than 67p above it. Price the differentials you want to keep before April, not after the first resignation.

What did the Budget change on business rates?

Business rates changes apply in England only. Scotland and Wales set their own rates. Everything below comes from Business Rates Information Letter 8/2026 (MHCLG, dated 28 October and updated 30 October 2026). The 30 October update revised the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) multipliers, so use the figures below rather than any reported on Budget day.

Multipliers for 2027/28 (paragraph 7 of the letter):

Small business rate relief for RHL properties. Full relief now runs up to £18,000 rateable value (was £12,000), tapering evenly to nothing at £21,000 (was £15,000), until 31 March 2029.

Bills capped at inflation. Increases on eligible RHL bills are capped at CPI in 2027/28 and 2028/29. The cap does not cover increases from improvements to the property or from losing a relief, and empty properties do not qualify.

Pubs. Pubs and live music venues relief rises from 15% to 35% for 2027/28 and 2028/29. This is relief for pubs, not restaurants: a food-led restaurant does not qualify.

Here is what that means for three restaurants in England, each with a single property:

The figures leave out transitional relief, the CPI cap and the 1p transitional relief supplement, all of which can move a real bill. In 2026/27 the small business multipliers apply below £51,000 rateable value, according to gov.uk's business rates calculator page; the letter does not mention changing that limit, so check your 2027/28 bill shows the right multiplier. Your council's bill is the final word.

So the rates package helps small sites and pubs most. A restaurant at £21,000 rateable value or above gets the lower RHL multiplier and the cap, and pays the full wage rise. How many restaurants is that?

Source: our analysis of the Valuation Office Agency's 2026 rating list download (version dated October 2026): list entries in English billing authorities with the Valuation Office's restaurant (234) and café (409) category codes. A further 93 restaurants and 3 cafés are valued at £500,000 or more.

Most cafés can reach a £0 bill; most restaurants cannot. The median restaurant is valued at £24,750, above the taper. A list entry is a property, not a business, so an operator with several sites may get no small business relief even in the top row. Pubs have their own figures in the pub business rates guide.

What did not change?

HM Treasury's Budget 2026 overview of tax legislation and rates, published on 28 October 2026, lists the rates and allowances for 2026/27 and 2027/28 side by side. The items below come from its Annex A unless stated.

• VAT on eating out stays at 20%. The standard rate is 20% in both years, and the Budget announced no hospitality cut, despite the industry campaign for 10% (Restaurant Online, 28 October 2026). The temporary 5% rate on children's meals ended on 1 September 2026. Rates on food and drink are in our restaurant VAT guide.
• The VAT registration threshold stays at £90,000, and the deregistration threshold at £88,000, in both years. See the VAT threshold guide if you are close to it.
• Employer National Insurance stays at 15% above the secondary threshold (£96 a week, £5,000 a year) in both years. The Employment Allowance stays at £10,500 for 2026/27 and 2027/28.
• Alcohol duty rises with RPI on 1 February 2027. HMRC's policy paper of 28 October 2026 sets a 4.55% rise. Per litre of pure alcohol, beer between 3.5% and 8.5% ABV goes from £22.58 to £23.61, and spirits above 22% ABV from £33.99 to £35.54; the reduced draught rate for beer is £20.34. The £10 million a year of new relief goes to small producers through Small Producer Relief, not to venues.

Selling the business. HMRC's policy paper of 29 October 2026 halves the Business Asset Disposal Relief lifetime limit, from £1 million to £500,000, for disposals on or after 6 April 2027. The 18% rate is unchanged, and anti-forestalling rules catch some contracts signed before 6 April 2027 but completed later. Talk to your accountant before you agree a sale.

Kitchen kit and fit-outs. HMRC's capital allowances policy paper raises the main rate first-year allowance from 40% to 50% and cuts the main rate writing-down allowance from 14% to 12%, from April 2027. HMRC notes the Annual Investment Allowance and full expensing already cover most new spending, so the cut mostly affects older pools of equipment. Ask your accountant before you time a refit.

Key dates for restaurant owners

Check with your accountant or payroll provider for your situation.

Your April 2027 checklist

Copy this into your notes and tick it off before the end of March.

APRIL 2027 CHECKLIST

Wages
[ ] List every hourly worker with date of birth and band
[ ] Update hourly rates in payroll: £13.21 / £11.27 / £8.31
[ ] List everyone paid under £13.88 and set their new rate
[ ] Note who changes band by birthday between April 2027 and March 2028
[ ] Decide supervisor differentials and write the new rates down
[ ] Check the first pay reference period starting on or after 1 April
[ ] Update contracts or pay letters for anyone on a rate that changes

Rota
[ ] Re-cost next April's standard rota at the new rates
[ ] Find the quietest 10% of scheduled hours and decide what to cut
[ ] Re-check holiday pay accrual for irregular-hours staff

Prices
[ ] Work out the wage rise per cover (annual rise / annual covers)
[ ] Decide which dishes absorb a price change, and when
[ ] Reprint menus and update online menus on the same day

Rates (England)
[ ] Find your rateable value on the gov.uk valuation service
[ ] Find your row: £18,000 or less, £18,001 to £20,999, or above
[ ] Check your 2027/28 bill: multiplier, small business relief, CPI cap
[ ] Query any missing relief with the council before paying

Can TablePort handle this for you?

Partly. TablePort's Staff Management and reports can turn the checklist into numbers you see every day:

1. Update rates in Staff Management. Build next April's rota with the new hourly rates and use wage forecasting to see what each week will cost.
2. Watch labour cost against revenue. Track hours and see labour cost against sales, with rota presets designed for UK Working Time rules.
3. Read the daily report. Each day's sales arrive with an AI-written summary, so a slow Tuesday that needs fewer hours shows up quickly.

One limit: TablePort is not a payroll system. Your payroll provider still applies the new rates and pays staff. See restaurant management for how the modules fit together.