Free tool for UK Home Care agencies
National Living Wage calculator for Home Care
Three calculators for domiciliary care payroll: check a worker's effective hourly rate for a pay reference period, project whether a rota round will fall below the floor before anyone works it, and find the contact-hour rate that keeps a worker compliant once travel is counted. Statutory rates from 1 April 2026.
The calculators use the same arithmetic as the CareOS guide to National Living Wage compliance in home care, which explains which hours and which pay count. General information, not legal or payroll advice.
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Effective rate calculator
Enter one worker's qualifying time and minimum-wage pay for a single pay reference period.
Not the journey from home to the first call or from the last call home.
Pay that counts. Leave out mileage reimbursement and any premium element that does not count.
Statutory rates from 1 April 2026.
- Effective hourly rate
- £13.29/hr
- Required rate
- £12.71/hr
- Qualifying time
- 143h 00m (143.00h)
- Minimum pay for this time
- £1,817.53
Comfortably above the statutory minimum on these figures.
£1,900.00 ÷ 143.00h = £13.29/hr · minimum 143.00h × £12.71 = £1,817.53
General information, not legal or payroll advice. Uses the statutory rates from 1 April 2026. Enter minimum-wage pay and qualifying hours as this guide defines them; the result depends on the facts of each worker's arrangement.
Want this on your phone? Open the standalone calculator page and add it to your home screen.
CareOS runs this check for every worker and every pay reference period from the rota, visit and travel data it already holds. See how home care agencies use CareOS →
Round risk calculator
Project the effective rate a round will produce before anyone works it. Contact-only pay with lots of short calls is where shortfalls hide.
Between consecutive clients only; the commute is excluded.
Across the whole round.
Unpaid travel still counts as working time.
Statutory rates from 1 April 2026.
- Effective hourly rate
- £9.34/hr
- Required rate
- £12.71/hr
- Qualifying time
- 8h 21m (8.35h)
- Minimum pay for this time
- £106.13
Additional payment required: £28.13. £78.00 was paid; £106.13 is the statutory minimum for 8h 21m at £12.71/hr.
Contact 6h 00m + travel 2h 06m + other 0h 15m = 8h 21m · pay £78.00 = £78.00
General information, not legal or payroll advice. Uses the statutory rates from 1 April 2026. Enter minimum-wage pay and qualifying hours as this guide defines them; the result depends on the facts of each worker's arrangement.
Want this on your phone? Open the standalone calculator page and add it to your home screen.
CareOS runs this check for every worker and every pay reference period from the rota, visit and travel data it already holds. See how home care agencies use CareOS →
Required contact rate calculator
Work backwards: given the travel and other qualifying time a typical week carries, what contact-hour rate keeps the worker at or above the floor?
Statutory rates from 1 April 2026.
- Contact rate needed
- £15.26/hr
- Statutory floor
- £12.71/hr
- Uplift over the floor
- £2.55/hr
Contact time is 83% of this worker's qualifying time, and travel is unpaid. Every contact hour must therefore carry £2.55 of pay for the time it does not cover. A round with more travel needs more; a compact round needs less.
(£12.71 × 36.00h) ÷ 30.00h = £15.26/hr, rounded up to the penny
General information, not legal or payroll advice. Uses the statutory rates from 1 April 2026. Enter minimum-wage pay and qualifying hours as this guide defines them; the result depends on the facts of each worker's arrangement.
Want this on your phone? Open the standalone calculator page and add it to your home screen.
CareOS runs this check for every worker and every pay reference period from the rota, visit and travel data it already holds. See how home care agencies use CareOS →
Put a calculator on your own website
Each calculator above has an Embed this calculator on your website button. Copy the code, paste it into your page, and the calculator appears there and sizes itself to its content. It is free for any care agency, payroll bureau, HR or training site. Please keep the one-line credit beneath it so your readers can find the full guide.
Want the explanation behind the numbers, with worked examples, the seven most common mistakes and an HMRC evidence checklist? Read the guide to National Living Wage compliance in home care.