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APA crew rates 2026, what changes on 1 September
On 1 September 2026 the APA rate card is replaced by a new one. It raises the basic day rate for most roles by roughly three per cent, and keeps each role in the same overtime grade at the same coefficient. Those are the two things the card sets; everything else your pay depends on comes from the terms, not the rate table.
What actually changes
It is not a flat three per cent. It is about three per cent on the basic day rate, rounded to the nearest pound, so the real change lands somewhere between 2.90% and 3.11% depending on your role. A gaffer goes from £568 to £585. A props assistant from £310 to £319, which is the smallest rise at 2.90%. The roles on £386 go to £398, the largest at 3.11%. In every case it is a few pounds a day.
Only the lighting trainee holds still, at £250. Everyone else rises, the card's rigging included: Advanced Rigger £386 to £398, Basic Rigger £345 to £355. TimeMachine still defaults riggers to the higher Bectu rate, which does not move, so the app's rigging figure is not the card's. You can see every role, both cards side by side, on the current APA rates page.
What the card sets, and what it does not
The card sets two things: the basic day rates, and each role's overtime grade. The overtime coefficients are unchanged, so every role stays in the grade it was in, at the same multiplier. Everything else your pay depends on, the penalties, the meal and mileage allowances, the break and turnaround thresholds, TimeMachine works out from the terms rather than from the rate table, so they are not part of what this card changes. The way a day rate becomes an hourly rate, a tenth of the day rate, is part of that same structure.
The same day, both cards
Take a gaffer, comfortably inside Grade II on both cards, so the overtime coefficient is 1.25 either way. Call at 08:00, wrap at 22:00, so three hours of overtime after the eleven hour basic day.
On the 2025 card the day rate is £568. The hourly rate is a tenth of that, £56.80, and the overtime hour is 1.25 times it, £71.00. Three overtime hours is £213.00, so the day comes to £781.00.
On the 2026 card the day rate is £585. The hourly rate is £58.50, and the overtime hour is 1.25 times it, which is £73.125. The published card rounds that to the pound, £73, so three overtime hours is £219.00 and the day comes to £804.00.
The rise is £23.00 a day: £17 on the day rate, and £6 across the three overtime hours at the card's rounded rate. That overtime hour is worth a word. Before rounding it is £73.125. TimeMachine keeps the pennies by default, so a day like this comes out a few pennies above the card's total. It can also be set to round each rate to the pound, which matches the card, or to round each line up in your favour, so your own figure may land a little either side of £804.
A job that spans 1 September
The card that applies is the one in force when the job is booked. The APA reissues its rates once a year, each edition effective from 1 September, and in practice an engagement agreed under one card is priced on that card for its whole run, even when the shoot runs past the change into the next one.
So a job booked and starting on 30 August 2025 runs on the 2025 card for every day, including the days on or after 1 September. A job only moves to the 2026 card when its first day is on or after 1 September 2026.
TimeMachine works exactly this way: it resolves the rate card once per production, from the production's earliest day. The start date fixes the card, so a job that spans the change stays on the card it began under.
Jobs you have already costed
A production you set up under the 2025 card keeps those rates. A new card does not reach back and re-rate a job you costed months ago. The rates were fixed onto the production when you built it, and they stay put unless you move its dates across the change.
Where the figures come from
The rates here are from the APA Recommended Crew Terms. For the full card, see the APA's published document.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA). It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms as a rate reference only. Figures quoted are from the September 2025 and September 2026 cards, and the rigging rates follow the Bectu figures. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.