<aside> 💡 For reference, employers may want to be aware of the London Living Wage when setting apprentice salaries. For example, LLW on a standard 40-hour week would be £28,800, as of May 2025 (See Living Wage Foundation).
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We encourage employers to provide performance and salary reviews during the apprenticeship. To allow for meaningful increments, it may be reasonable to set the starting salary at below London Living Wage, but to aim for a salary at or above it after the first performance review.
A good benchmark for a final salary review would take the apprentice to 75% of their expected post-apprenticeship salary. This figure follows the findings of “How Employers Set Pay For Apprentices”, a report commissioned by the Low Pay Commission in 2020.
Apprentice employment contracts are often for the maximum length of the apprenticeship after which a new employment contract can be agreed. Some employers prefer a fixed-term contract for 24 months, in which case another performance review might be appropriate if and when the apprentice completes their apprenticeship early and no longer has any training commitments.