What do entry-level tech jobs pay in the UK?

The straight answer first. Your very first tech role - first-line support, junior technician, apprentice anything - is likely to start at or near the legal minimum for your age. That surprises people who've read headlines about developer salaries. Both things are true at once: tech starts low and climbs faster than almost any other route open to a school leaver. The useful questions are how the age bands work, what genuinely lifts your rate and how quickly the arc bends upwards. That's this guide.

Rates shown are the legal minimums from 1 April 2026 and update every April.

The age bands, explained properly

UK minimum wage isn't a single number. It's a ladder with rungs at 18 and 21, plus a separate rate for apprentices.

Most tech careers begin in the 18 to 20 band rather than the 16 to 17 one, simply because very few IT roles open before your eighteenth birthday - our tech jobs at 16 guide explains what those two years are genuinely for. The day you turn 18 your legal floor becomes £10.85 automatically. At 21 you step onto the National Living Wage at £12.71, the full adult rate, regardless of what your job title says.

Worth saying plainly: the FIRSTJOBZ board lists roles for over-18s, so the bands you'll actually meet through us start at £10.85. The 16 to 17 rate is here because it's your right to know it if you're working somewhere locally before then.

Two things to hold onto about that ladder. First, those are floors rather than targets. Plenty of IT employers pay juniors above their band from day one, because a service desk that keeps losing people to the shop next door costs far more than the difference. Always check the advertised rate before you fill anything in.

Second, the apprentice rate of £8.00 applies to apprentices under 19, or older apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship. After that first year, an apprentice aged 19 or over moves onto the normal rate for their age. That matters in tech because IT apprenticeships often run beyond twelve months, so the pay picture in year two looks different from the one in the advert.

What actually moves tech pay up

Beyond your age band, a handful of things genuinely lift an IT wage - and unlike most entry-level industries, they start working within months.

Certifications are the big one. Vendor qualifications from the likes of CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco are the currency of the support world, they're recognised by every employer in the country and good employers pay for them. Each one you hold makes you harder to replace and easier to promote. Ask at interview whether training and exam fees are covered, because the answer separates the employers who develop people from the ones who burn through them.

Out-of-hours work is the second. Systems break at night and lots of IT teams run an on-call rota, an early shift, a late shift or weekend cover for maintenance windows. Those shifts commonly carry premiums or standby allowances. If you can handle a 7am start or a phone that might ring on a Sunday, the same job can pay noticeably better than the nine-to-five version of it.

Project and rollout overtime is the third. Big migrations, office moves, school refresh work over the summer, new site openings - all of it happens outside normal hours and all of it needs bodies. Say yes to a few of those early and you get two things: the extra pay and a reputation as someone the team can rely on when it matters.

Specialising is the fourth and the most powerful over time. Support is the general entrance. Networking, cyber security, cloud and infrastructure are the corridors leading off it and they pay differently. You don't need to pick at 18. You need to notice which tickets you enjoy solving, then aim there deliberately.

Two smaller ones worth naming. Location plays a part, with many employers paying a London supplement. And for field engineer roles, a full driving licence changes what you can be hired for entirely, since a van-based job is closed to anyone who can't drive it.

The two-to-three year arc

Here's where tech separates itself from most first-job industries.

The typical shape runs like this. Year one you're first line: answering the phone, logging tickets, resetting passwords, imaging laptops, escalating what you can't fix. Year two, if you've been paying attention, you're second line: the harder faults, the ones that come back down from first line with a note saying "tried the obvious". From there the paths fan out - third line and specialist work, a junior systems or network role, a security team, a step sideways into development or data, or team leader if managing people appeals more than machines.

Every one of those steps carries a pay increase and none of them requires a degree. What they require is evidence a manager can see: tickets closed properly, users who ask for you by name, a certification or two, the willingness to take the awkward job nobody else wanted. Described directionally here because every employer sets its own numbers - inventing a figure would be doing you a disservice.

The other accelerator is movement. IT people change employer more often than most and the biggest jumps frequently come from moving rather than waiting. Two years of real support experience makes you a completely different candidate from the one who applied with an empty CV, which our no-experience guide walks through in full. Loyalty is lovely. Just make sure it's being paid for.

The perks that beat the hourly rate

Judge a tech job on the whole package, because a chunk of the value never appears on the payslip.

Paid training and exam fees are the headline. An employer who funds your certifications is handing you qualifications that belong to you forever and travel to every future job. That's worth real money and plenty of people underrate it while chasing a slightly better hourly rate somewhere that trains nobody.

Kit and flexibility come next. Decent hardware, a phone, sometimes hybrid working once you're past probation and trusted on your own. First-line roles are often onsite by nature, so don't expect to work from your bedroom in year one - but the option tends to arrive with seniority.

Then the quiet ones. Study time during work hours. A mentor who'll actually explain what they're doing rather than snatching the keyboard. Exposure to systems you'd never afford to play with at home. And the reference: six solid months under an IT manager who'll answer the phone about you opens every door you knock on afterwards.

The biggest perk of all is harder to see on day one. Tech skills are portable across industries, across the country and across borders in a way that few other trades manage. The service desk in a small town office teaches you the same fundamentals as the one in a bank. Where you take them afterwards is entirely your business.

So: entry-level tech pays the minimum for your age at the start, climbs the legal ladder at 18 and 21 and then rises far faster than that once certifications, out-of-hours work and specialising kick in. The rate is the floor. The skills you collect in the first two years are the multiplier. Head back to the tech hub for the full series, or from 18 browse live tech jobs to see what's actually paying near you right now.