Autumn Budget 2026

Chancellor John Healey has set out his first budget, outlining the government's tax and spending plans.

But what does it mean for HR, your organisation and your people?

The headline change for HR

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) will rise by 3.9% for both 18-20 year old's and over 21s, taking them to £11.27 and £13.20 respectively.

On its own, the 49p an hour extra sounds modest. But at scale it isn't. A full-time employee on minimum wage will now earn around £27,456 annually, roughly £1,000 extra (before tax and National Insurance). For an organisation with 500 people on minimum wage, that's over half a million pounds extra before anyone else has had a pay review.

The latest rise will mean the minimum wage has risen by almost 50% since 2020, when it was just £8.72 for over 25s. Now, it'll be £13.20 for everyone over 21, meaning that the minimum wage hasn't just risen, it's widened too.

This has a real impact on pay structures: those on minimum wage may end up seeing a larger increase in their pay than those supervising them. While those just slightly above minimum wage see their wages compressed, as the available payroll shrinks.

The question stops being "can we afford the rise?" and quickly becomes "what does a promotion, or staying another year, feel like for the people above minimum wage?". When base pay has less room to signal progression, the rest of your package - recognition, benefits, salary sacrifice - has to do more work.

Tax changes for businesses

There's two announcements here, the first that banks will face an extra 3% surcharge on profits for a time-limited 15 month period starting January. Alongside this, the threshold at which High Street shops start paying business rates (a property tax) has moved from £12,000 to £18,000, meaning thousands of businesses along our high streets no longer have to pay business rates.

Cost of Living support

The Chancellor outlined a number of policies to give people and businesses "breathing room" from the cost of living, these include:

• A one-off £100 payment for 20 million households in council tax bands A-D in England to help deal with rising energy bills.

• Changes to standing charges for household gas bills, a continuation of VAT cuts on electricity bills until July, the freeze on fuel duty extended to July and the removal of import taxes on more than 100 supermarket products.

Each one a small, yet meaningful, change that means your people will see a few more pounds in their pocket every day.

If you're looking for ways to further support your people while the cost of living bites, our Household & Tech salary sacrifice scheme helps to offset the cost of big ticket purchases, all while reducing your organisation's costs.