As always, April bring with it a raft of increases to statutory payments, which we have detailed below.
As of 1 April 2025, the National Living Wage (“NLW”) (for those aged 21 and over) and the National Minimum Wage (“NMW”) (for those of at least school leaving age) will be increased:
- 21 and over: £12.21 (from £11.44).
- 18 to 20: £10.00 (from £8.60).
- Under 18: £7.55 (from £6.40).
- Apprentice: £7.55 (from £6.40).
From 6 April 2025, the following increases will also apply:
Statutory Sick Pay (“SSP”) will increase from £116.75 to £118.75 per week. The minimum earnings threshold for SSP will also increase from £123 to £125 per week.
The Statutory Cap on a Week’s Pay is also increasing on 6 April 2025, from £700 to £719. This will impact on statutory redundancy pay as the calculation for this uses the statutory cap on a week’s pay.
Statutory Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental and Parental Bereavement Leave Pay will increase from £184.03 to £187.18 per week (or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings if this is less than the statutory rate). This rate will also apply to Statutory Neonatal Care Leave, which comes into force on 6 April 2025. The earnings threshold for family leave pay will also increase from £123 to £125 per week.
Employer National Insurance Contributions will increase by 1.2 percentage points, to 15%. The payment threshold will lower from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
Why does this matter?
This is particularly important if you employ people on NLW / NMW, but it is also important if anyone is on statutory leave. If you have a third party doing your payroll, you will want to ensure that they action these payments correctly – delegating this task is not an excuse for a failure to pay correctly.
What advice and guidance is there for employers to ensure that they are paying their staff correctly?
- Keep records – make sure that you have accurate time sheets which reflect what hours people have actually worked, rather than what hours they had agreed to work.
- Check those records regularly, perhaps have an audit once a month of a handful of example timesheets, to see whether they are being accurately completed.
- There are electronic recording systems – they may be much more consistent and better if you have a lot of staff to monitor, especially to notify you when someone’s birthday takes them into a new NLW / NMW bracket.
- Make sure that your employment contract is clear on the obligations to record time accurately – that way you have recourse if part of your issue is employees not accurately recording their time.
- Stress the importance of good records to management- they need to understand why this is so important and what the consequences are of them not enforcing or checking timesheets adequately
- Consider if any proposed deductions from wages will take staff below NLW / NMW.
How can Thrive help?
We can help you understand your NLW / NMW obligations, ensuring you comply accurately. Contact us.
Disclaimer
Please note this blog is for reference purposes only and is only accurate at which the date it was published. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Specific Legal advice about your specific circumstances should always be sought separately before taking or deciding not to take any actions. Please contact us if you have any questions on enquiries@thrivelaw.co.uk.
