Minimum wage for dental receptionists and nurses from April 2026: the £12.71 rate, the apprentice rate and what one full-time post now costs a year

Most dental practices pay their receptionists and nurses above the legal minimum. The minimum still matters, because it sets the floor for trainees, for part-time cover and for any role that starts at entry level. It rose again on 1 April 2026, and employer National Insurance sits on top of every pound.

GOV.UK lists the rates from 1 April 2026 as follows.

What one full-time post costs

We priced a 37.5-hour week over 52 weeks. Employer National Insurance for 2026-27 is 15% of pay above the secondary threshold of £96 a week, which is £5,000 a year. Pension contributions, holiday cover, uniform, training time and recruitment are not in these figures.

The 21 and over rate adds £1,121.25 a year to one full-time post compared with a year earlier. A practice with a reception team of three full-time staff on that rate sees £3,363.75 more in the year, before any pay rise it chose to give on top.

The Employment Allowance can reduce an employer's National Insurance bill by up to £10,500 a year for 2026-27, but it is not available to every employer. Check the eligibility rules on GOV.UK, or ask your accountant, before you count on it.

The apprentice rate is narrower than it sounds

GOV.UK says an apprentice gets the apprentice rate only if they are either aged under 19, or aged 19 or over and in the first year of the apprenticeship. A 21-year-old in the first year gets £8.00. Once they finish that first year they are owed the rate for their age, which is £12.71 at 21.

That affects practices that take on trainee dental nurses. A trainee aged 21 or over who is not on an apprenticeship is owed £12.71 from the first day, not £8.00. A trainee who is on an apprenticeship, and aged 19 or over, drops out of the apprentice rate after twelve months. Put the date in the diary when you take them on. The GDC's start-of-training deadlines for trainees are in our trainee dental nurse guide.

Where the minimum bites in a practice

• Part-time reception cover, where an hourly rate is easy to leave unchanged at the April change.
• Trainee nurses and receptionists who join at 18 to 20 and turn 21 during the year. The rate for their age applies from the day they reach it, and the GOV.UK page does not describe any grace period.
• Staff whose pay is a salary. Divide the salary by the hours actually worked in the year to check the hourly figure is at or above the rate.

A check to run each April

1. List everyone paid by the hour and everyone on a salary, with their age and hours.
2. For each person, work out the hourly rate for their age band on 1 April.
3. Flag anyone who turns 18, 21 or leaves the first year of an apprenticeship in the next twelve months, and note the date.
4. Work out the new employer National Insurance bill from the weekly figure above £96.
5. Add the result to the yearly costs in our surgery hourly rate calculator, and compare it with the practice's other fixed fees in the regulator fees guide.

In the practice

Overlyft can set up an AI assistant that keeps a staff list with ages, hours and apprenticeship dates, and prompts the practice manager each March to recheck rates before 1 April. It calculates nothing that is paid and changes no payroll record. The practice manager or the practice's accountant checks every figure before it is used. This page is general information, not employment or legal advice.