London Living Wage Rises to £15.45: What It Means for Your Office Cleaning Contract

On 15 October 2026 the Living Wage Foundation set the new London Living Wage at £15.45 an hour, up 65p from £14.80. The UK rate outside London went from £13.45 to £14.10. Accredited employers have until 1 May 2027 to pay it.

If you run an office in London, you'll probably get a letter about this from your cleaning contractor within the next few months. This post works through what the rise actually costs per hour of cleaning, why that number is bigger than 65p, and what to look for in your contract before you agree to anything.

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The 2026–27 Rates at a Glance

Rate	Who sets it	2025–26	2026–27	Legally required?
London Living Wage	Living Wage Foundation	£14.80	£15.45	No (voluntary)
Real Living Wage (UK)	Living Wage Foundation	£13.45	£14.10	No (voluntary)
National Living Wage (21+)	Government	£12.71 (since April 2026)	Projected £13.18 from April 2027	Yes

The National Living Wage figure for April 2027 isn't confirmed yet. £13.18 is the Low Pay Commission's central projection, with a range of £13.02 to £13.34. The government usually confirms it in the autumn, and it has accepted the Commission's recommendation every year since 2016.

People mix these two rates up a lot. The National Living Wage is the legal minimum, and every cleaning company has to pay it. The London Living Wage is voluntary. A cleaning company only has to pay it if it's accredited, or if your contract says so.

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Does the London Living Wage Apply to Your Cleaners?

There are three ways it can apply to you:

1. Your business is Living Wage accredited. The Foundation's rules say accredited employers must extend the rate to regular third-party contractors, which means cleaners and security staff who work on your premises for at least 2 hours a week for 8 or more consecutive weeks. Your office cleaners almost certainly meet that test. If an existing contract stops you passing the rise on, the Foundation gives you up to three years from accreditation to fix it.
2. Your cleaning contract names the London Living Wage. Plenty of tender documents and framework agreements say "contractor shall pay the London Living Wage". If yours does, the rise follows automatically, usually with a price review clause.
3. Your contractor is accredited. Some cleaning companies pay it across their whole workforce, and they'll pass the cost on at renewal.

If none of those apply, the London Living Wage rise doesn't oblige anyone to raise your price. The April 2027 National Living Wage increase will, though, so your contract price is probably going up next year either way.

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Why 65p an Hour Costs You More Than 65p

A cleaner's hourly wage is only part of what an hour of cleaning costs. Every pound of wages brings extra costs with it:

• Holiday pay. Cleaners are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. Someone has to cover those weeks, so every hour of cleaning you receive carries about 12% extra in wages.
• Employer National Insurance. 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year in 2026–27. That threshold was cut from £9,100 in April 2025, which is why part-time cleaning wages now attract far more NI than they used to.
• Workplace pension. At least 3% of qualifying earnings for staff who are auto-enrolled.
• Statutory Sick Pay. Since 6 April 2026 it's paid from the first day of absence, not the fourth. One cleaning contractor told the trade press it expected the change to roughly double what it pays in sick pay.

Here's what that does to the cost of one hour of cleaning. The worked example is a cleaner on a 25-hour week, which is typical for evening office contracts in London.

Hourly wage	Wage cost per hour worked (incl. holiday cover)	Employer NI	Pension (3%)	Employment cost per hour worked
£12.71 (NLW now)	£14.24	£1.49	£0.27	£16.00
£13.18 (projected NLW, April 2027)	£14.77	£1.57	£0.28	£16.62
£14.10 (Real Living Wage, UK)	£15.80	£1.72	£0.31	£17.84
£14.80 (old London Living Wage)	£16.59	£1.84	£0.34	£18.76
£15.45 (new London Living Wage)	£17.31	£1.95	£0.36	£19.62

How we worked it out: 25 paid hours a week across 52 weeks (1,300 hours), with 140 of those as holiday, leaving 1,160 hours of actual cleaning. NI is 15% above £5,000 a year and pension is 3% above £6,240. The table leaves out the Employment Allowance, which reduces NI for some employers. It also leaves out sick pay, supervision, training, uniforms, insurance, equipment and the contractor's margin.

So the 65p rise in the London Living Wage adds about 86p to the employment cost of every hour cleaned. Moving from National Living Wage pay to the London Living Wage adds £3.62 an hour before the contractor has paid for a single supervisor or insurance policy.

What that means for a typical office

Take an office cleaned for 2 hours every weekday evening, which comes to 520 hours a year.

• Already on the London Living Wage: about £447 a year more in employment cost from the new rate, before VAT and margin.
• Moving from National Living Wage pay to the London Living Wage: about £1,880 a year more.
• Staying on National Living Wage pay through April 2027: about £320 a year more if the £13.18 projection holds.

These figures are the floor. A contractor's price also covers supervision, cover staff, insurance, training and profit, so a fair price increase will come in a bit above them.

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A Price That Looks Too Cheap Probably Is

Look at the bottom row of that table again. Paying the London Living Wage costs a contractor £19.62 for every hour cleaned before supervisors, insurance, sick cover, travel, admin or profit. If a London quote comes in close to that figure and still promises London Living Wage pay, something doesn't add up.

Usually it's one of these:

• The wage is paid but the hours aren't. The quote assumes 2 hours and the cleaner is told to finish in 1.5.
• Holiday cover goes unstaffed, so your office simply isn't cleaned for a few weeks a year.
• Cleaners are labelled self-employed to avoid NI, holiday pay and pension. HMRC takes a dim view of that for people working fixed shifts under supervision, and the employment status risk can come back to the client.
• The wage gets paid for six months, then quietly drops at renewal.

None of these show up on day one. They show up three months in, as missed bins and a new face every fortnight. We cover more of those warning signs in why clients switch cleaning companies.

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What to Check in Your Cleaning Contract Before May 2027

Pull out the contract and look for these five things:

1. A wage review clause. Does it name a specific rate (National Living Wage, London Living Wage) and say when increases pass through? A good clause ties the increase to the wage component only, not the whole price.
2. How the increase is calculated. Ask for the sums. A contractor should be able to show hours × wage uplift × on-costs. If the letter just says "6% increase from 1 April", ask what it's made of.
3. Hours on site. Your contract should state the hours each cleaner works. Check them against signing-in records or the contractor's digital log. A price rise with fewer hours behind it isn't a wage increase.
4. Who covers holidays and sickness. Day-one sick pay changes the sums for contractors. Make sure the contract says absences get covered, not just paid for.
5. Notice period and renewal date. If renewal falls between now and May 2027, that's when you'll negotiate. Don't leave it to the last month.

If you're Living Wage accredited, add a sixth: written confirmation that every cleaner on your site gets £15.45 by 1 May 2027. The Foundation can ask you for evidence.

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Ways to Absorb the Increase Without Cutting Corners

If the numbers hurt, there are better options than squeezing the cleaners' hours:

• Match cleaning to occupancy. Most London offices are busiest Tuesday to Thursday. Many can drop to a lighter clean on Mondays and Fridays and keep a full clean midweek. We wrote about how that works in our office cleaning trends for 2026.
• Move some tasks to a periodic schedule. Carpet cleaning, high-level dusting and window sills don't need doing every night. Monthly or quarterly visits cost less in total.
• Check the scope. Contracts drift. Rooms get added, then floors get sublet, and the specification never gets updated. Walk the building with your contractor and price what's actually there.
• Agree a longer term. A two or three-year contract with a clear wage clause gives the contractor certainty, and you should get a sharper price for it.

The one thing that doesn't work is keeping the hours on paper and expecting the same result with fewer hours in practice. Offices get dirtier, and good cleaners leave.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the London Living Wage for 2026–27?

The London Living Wage for 2026–27 is £15.45 an hour, announced by the Living Wage Foundation on 15 October 2026. It rose 65p from £14.80. The UK Real Living Wage outside London is £14.10. Accredited employers should pay the new rates as soon as possible, and by 1 May 2027 at the latest.

What is the London Living Wage as an annual salary?

At £15.45 an hour, the London Living Wage works out to about £30,127 a year for a 37.5-hour week, or £28,119 for a 35-hour week (hourly rate × weekly hours × 52). Most office cleaners work part-time evening shifts, so a cleaner on 25 hours a week earns about £20,085 a year at the new rate.

Is there a London Living Wage for 2027?

The rate announced in October 2026 is the 2026–27 London Living Wage of £15.45. Employers have until 1 May 2027 to pay it, so it's the rate that applies through most of 2027. The next London rate will be announced in autumn 2027.

Do cleaning companies have to pay the London Living Wage?

No. The London Living Wage is voluntary. The legal minimum for workers aged 21 and over is the National Living Wage, which is £12.71 an hour from April 2026. A cleaning company only has to pay the London Living Wage if it's accredited, if its contract with you requires it, or if your own business is accredited and extends the rate to on-site contractors.

How much will the London Living Wage rise add to my office cleaning bill?

Each 65p rise in the hourly wage adds about 86p to the employment cost of an hour of cleaning, once you include holiday cover, employer National Insurance and pension. For an office cleaned 2 hours each weekday, that comes to roughly £450 a year before VAT and the contractor's margin.

What is the National Living Wage from April 2027?

It isn't confirmed yet. The Low Pay Commission's central projection is £13.18 an hour, a 3.7% rise on £12.71, within a range of £13.02 to £13.34. The government normally confirms the rate in the autumn before it takes effect in April.

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Next Step

Before your contractor's increase letter arrives, check your contract's wage clause and the hours on site. If you'd like a second opinion on a price rise, or a quote for commercial cleaning in London set out line by line, get in touch. We'll show you the hours, the rate and what sits behind it.

You can also see our current office cleaning prices and what an evening office clean covers.

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Sources: Living Wage Foundation, 2026–27 Real Living Wage and London Living Wage announcement (15 October 2026); Low Pay Commission 2026 consultation and remit; HMRC employer National Insurance rates and thresholds for 2026–27; Employment Rights Act 2025 Statutory Sick Pay changes effective 6 April 2026. Cost figures are St Anne's own calculations using the assumptions stated under the table.