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Minimum wage Aberdeen: the legal rate and what local jobs pay

The legal rate is the UK rate. But Aberdeen pairs better paid jobs than Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee with rents well below Edinburgh or Glasgow.

By Graeme · Published 29 October 2026 · 6 min read

Last updated · Figures checked

Quick answer · Minimum wage in Aberdeen, 21 and over

£12.71an hour

The same legal rate as the rest of the UK, rising to £13.21 on 1 April 2027. The middle job in Aberdeen pays £23.17 an hour.

Age 21 and over
£12.71, then £13.21
Age 18 to 20
£10.85, then £11.27
One bedroom rent, Aberdeen and Shire
£602 a month
Left after rent and council tax
£1,048 a month

Rates from 1 April 2026. Rent for September 2026Source GOV.UK

Aberdeen granite street with ordinary shops and a worker's lunch bag
Aberdeen granite street with ordinary shops and a worker's lunch bag.
On this page

The minimum wage in Aberdeen is £12.71 an hour for anyone 21 or over, going up to £13.21 on 1 April 2027. That's the UK rate, so it's no different here than in Glasgow or Cardiff. What is different about Aberdeen is that its jobs pay more than Glasgow's, Edinburgh's or Dundee's, while its rents are far lower than in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The legal rate in Aberdeen

Every employer in Aberdeen has to pay at least these rates, by age. Nobody in Scotland sets a separate rate. The UK Government decides it each year, on advice from the Low Pay Commission.

The same in Aberdeen as anywhere in the UK

Minimum wage rates

AgeNowFrom 1 April 2027
21 and over£12.71£13.21
18 to 20£10.85£11.27
Under 18£8.00£8.31
Apprentice£8.00£8.31
Hourly rates from GOV.UK. The apprentice rate is for apprentices under 19, or 19 and over in their first year.

What Aberdeen jobs actually pay

Aberdeen is a city where the legal minimum is a long way below what most jobs pay. The earnings survey for April 2026 counts 201,000 employee jobs in the city, and the middle one pays £23.17 an hour, about 1.8 times the minimum wage.

Jobs based in each city, April 2026

Hourly pay, full and part time

City1 in 10 jobs pays less thanThe middle job
Glasgow£13.32£20.61
Edinburgh£13.69£22.26
Aberdeen£13.90£23.17
Dundee£13.40£19.66
ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 7. Hourly pay leaving out overtime, by where the job is based.

Full time jobs based in Aberdeen pay £45,696 a year in the middle. Full time workers who live in the city earn £43,092, and those living in Aberdeenshire £45,213. So some of the best paid city jobs look to be going to people who live outside it.

One word of caution. The survey has the middle full time weekly wage in Aberdeen jumping a lot in a year, and a city sample this size can swing about. I'd treat the level as solid and any single year's change with care.

Aberdeen rent on a minimum wage

Here's the part that surprises people from the central belt. The average one bedroom rent in the Aberdeen and Shire rental area was £602 a month in September 2026, against £702 for Scotland as a whole. Across all sizes of home, average rents in the area were 1.2% lower than a year before, the only one of the four big city areas where they fell.

£1,048

a month left on a full time minimum wage after rent and council tax

£1,784 take home, less £602 average one bedroom rent and £133 for a Band A council tax and water bill.

Council tax and what's left in Aberdeen

Aberdeen City Council put council tax up 6.8% for 2026/27. A Band A bill, the lowest band, comes to £1,599.91 a year with water and waste water. That's the highest Band A bill of the four cities, but it's rent that decides the month. All the bands are on the Aberdeen council tax bands page.

Full time on the legal minimum, a month

What's left after rent and council tax

CityTake homeOne bedroom rentCouncil tax and waterLeft
Glasgow£1,784£845£131£808
Edinburgh£1,784£1,036£127£621
Aberdeen£1,784£602£133£1,048
Dundee£1,784£573£132£1,078
Take home at £12.71 an hour, 37.5 hours a week. Rent is the ONS average for a one bedroom home in the city's rental area, September 2026. Council tax is Band A for 2026/27 with water and waste water, before any discount.

Remember this is the floor

These sums assume the lowest legal wage and 37.5 paid hours every week. Plenty of minimum wage work in hospitality and retail is part time or on changing rotas, which can leave a lot less than this.

What a full time minimum wage job takes home

Take home pay doesn't change between Scottish cities. It comes down to the wage, your hours, Scottish income tax and .

Age 21 and over, 37.5 hours a week

Full time pay at the legal minimum

Now (£12.71)April 2027 (£13.21)
Pay before tax, a week£476.63£495.38
Pay before tax, a year£24,784.50£25,759.50
Take home, a year£21,404.11£22,106.11
Take home, a month£1,783.68£1,842.18
Scottish income tax and employee National Insurance on 2026/27 rules, standard tax code, no pension or student loan. The 2027/28 Scottish tax bands aren't set yet.

The real Living Wage gap in Aberdeen

The is £14.10 an hour. It's a voluntary rate that employers can sign up to, based on what life actually costs. The gap to the legal minimum is £1.39 an hour, or £2,710.50 a year full time. With most Aberdeen jobs already paying well above both, it's worth asking an employer which one they pay before you take a job. More in real Living Wage Scotland.

If you're paid less than the minimum wage

Start with your payslip and your paid hours. If something is short, ask your employer. If that doesn't fix it, call Acas free and in confidence on 0300 123 1100, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, or complain to HMRC. can make an employer pay back and fine them.

Aberdeen council tax, band by band

See what every band costs in Aberdeen this year, water included, and how much it went up.

Aberdeen council tax bands

Quick answers

Questions people ask

Is the minimum wage different in Aberdeen?

No. It's £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, the same everywhere in the UK. The UK Government sets it each year on advice from the Low Pay Commission.

What do jobs in Aberdeen pay?

In April 2026, the middle job based in Aberdeen paid £23.17 an hour, and only 1 in 10 paid less than £13.90. The middle full time job paid £45,696 a year.

How much is left on minimum wage in Aberdeen after rent?

About £1,048 a month, working full time at £12.71, after an average one bedroom rent of £602 and a Band A council tax and water bill.

What will the minimum wage be in Aberdeen in 2027?

£13.21 an hour from 1 April 2027 for workers aged 21 and over.
Proof and further detailOpen the 14 original sources
  1. 01National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates , UK Government. The legal hourly minimums from 1 April 2026: £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over, £10.85 for ages 18 to 20, and £8 for under 18s and eligible apprentices.How I used it: The full time illustration is £12.71 multiplied by 37.5 paid hours and 52 weeks: £24,784.50 gross a year. It is an illustration, not a claim that every minimum wage worker receives those hours.
  2. 02National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates from April 2027 , UK Government. The legal hourly minimums from 1 April 2027: £13.21 for workers aged 21 and over, £11.27 for ages 18 to 20, and £8.31 for under 18s and eligible apprentices.How I used it: The full time illustration is £13.21 multiplied by 37.5 paid hours and 52 weeks: £25,759.50 gross a year, £975 more than the same hours at the 2026 rate.
  3. 03Scottish Income Tax: rates and bands, 2026 to 2027 , Scottish Government. The bands used to work out take home pay: a £12,570 personal allowance, then 19% to £16,537, 20% to £29,526 and 21% to £43,662.
  4. 04National Insurance rates and categories , UK Government. Class 1 employee National Insurance, category A: nothing below £242 a week, 8% between £242 and £967, and 2% above.
  5. 05Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026 provisional: place of work by local authority (ASHE Table 7) , Office for National Statistics. For jobs based in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Scotland in April 2026: the number of employee jobs, hourly pay leaving out overtime at the 10th and 20th percentiles and the median for all employees, and median annual and weekly pay for full time employees.How I used it: Tables 7.1a, 7.6a and 7.7a. Workplace figures count a job where the work is, so they include people who commute in. They are compared with residence figures only to show that difference.
  6. 06Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026 provisional: place of residence by local authority (ASHE Table 8) , Office for National Statistics. Median gross annual and weekly pay for full time employees living in Scotland and in each of the 32 councils in April 2026: £41,591 a year and £825.40 a week for Scotland. Also the Scotland mean (£48,435), the 10th to 90th percentiles, hourly pay leaving out overtime (£21.59), the median for all employees (£34,559) and the UK median (£40,911).How I used it: Tables 8.1a, 8.5a to 8.7a and their quality tables. Annual figures are rounded to the nearest pound. Annual pay only covers employees who had been in the same job for at least a year. Council figures with a coefficient of variation above 10% are starred, because ONS advises caution. Orkney's annual median is not published.
  7. 07Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics, 21 October 2026 , Office for National Statistics. Average monthly private rents for September 2026, for one bedroom homes and all homes, with the change on a year: Greater Glasgow £845 one bedroom, Lothian £1,036, Aberdeen and Shire £602, Dundee and Angus £573, and Scotland £702.How I used it: Scotland is published by Broad Rental Market Area, not by council, so each city uses the area it sits in. ONS notes Scottish rents are mostly advertised new lets. The money left each month is full time take home pay at the legal minimum, less the one bedroom average and a 2026/27 Band A council tax and water bill divided by 12, before any discount.
  8. 08Council Tax by band 2025-26 and 2026-27, council tax datasets , Scottish Government. Council tax by band for all 32 Scottish councils in 2025-26 and 2026-27, including the cash and percentage change between the two years.How I used it: The amounts are used as displayed to the nearest penny in the two national workbooks, which record the figures reported by each local authority. Cash and percentage changes are calculated from those two published amounts. Scottish Water charges are excluded from every council tax comparison and added separately from Scottish Water's published table.
  9. 09Unmetered charges 2026-27 , Scottish Water. Unmetered water and waste water charges for 2026-27: £201.30 and £233.58 at Band A, £434.88 combined. These are collected with council tax.
  10. 10Council Tax discounts, exemptions and reductions , mygov.scot. The single adult, student, disability, severe mental impairment and low income routes that can reduce or remove a Council Tax bill.
  11. 11Low Pay Commission Remit 2026: National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage , UK Government. That the National Living Wage is set at two thirds of median hourly earnings, which is why median full time pay sits around one and a half times the minimum.
  12. 12Real Living Wage rates and frequently asked questions , Living Wage Foundation. The voluntary real Living Wage of £14.10 an hour outside London and £15.45 in London, announced on 15 October 2026 for accredited employers to pay by 1 May 2027. It is calculated from living costs rather than set as the legal wage floor.How I used it: At 37.5 paid hours for 52 weeks this is £27,495 gross a year, £2,710.50 more than the same hours illustration at the 2026 legal minimum.
  13. 13Pay and work rights helpline and complaints , UK Government. The Acas helpline, 0300 123 1100, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, and that complaints about the minimum wage go to HMRC.
  14. 14The National Minimum Wage and Living Wage: employers and the minimum wage , UK Government. That HMRC can check an employer at any time and investigate a complaint, that arrears must be paid back straight away, and that an employer who underpays also faces a fine.

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