April is always a key time for employers and payroll departments with important changes to employment law and statutory rates of pay taking effect. Here are the top 5 changes businesses need to be aware of:
- New rates for the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
From 1 April 2019 all the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates will increase as follows:
- Workers aged 25 and over going up from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour (national living wage);
- Workers aged between 21-24 from £7.38 to £7.70 an hour;
- 18-20 year olds from £5.90 to £6.15 an hour;
- Those over compulsory school age but not yet 18 from £4.20 to £4.35 per hour; and
- Apprentices from £3.70 an hour to £3.90 an hour (providing the apprentice is under the age of 19, or 19 and over but in the first year of their current apprenticeship).
- Increased statutory payments for family-related pay, statutory sick pay and redundancy pay
- Statutory redundancy pay will rise again from 6 April 2019.Employers that dismiss employees for redundancy must pay those with two years’ service an amount based on the employee’s weekly pay, length of service and age.The maximum statutory amount for a week’s pay (used to calculate statutory redundancy payments) will increase from £508 per week to £525 per weekThe weekly rate of statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay increases from £145.18 to £148.68 for pay weeks commencing on or after 7 April 2019 (or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings whichever is lower).
- The weekly rate of statutory sick pay increases from £92.05 to £94.25 from 6 April 2019.
- April 2019 payslip changes
- From 6 April 2019, where a member of staff’s pay varies according to time worked, new Regulations will require payslips to be ‘itemised’ and the employer will have to include the total number of hours worked for which variable pay is received. This can be done either as an aggregate number of hours or as separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay.
- In addition, the legal right to an itemised payslip will be extended to include those who are recognised as workers, not just employees.
- Pension contributions – auto enrolment
- From April 2019 the minimum contributions for auto-enrolment pension schemes will increase for both employers and employees.
- Currently, automatic enrolment requirements mean employers must contribute a minimum of 2% of an eligible worker’s pre-tax salary to their pension pot, with the individual contributing 3% themselves. However, under the increased requirements, employers and employees will now have to contribute a minimum of 3% and 5% respectively.
- Gender pay gap reporting
Following the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, employers with 250 or more employees will again be required to publish their gender pay gap figures on or before the 4th April 2019 (public-sector employers on or before the 30 March 2019).
Organisations must publish reports on their website and on the gov.uk website and be accompanied by a written statement confirming their accuracy and signed by a senior person as prescribed by the legislation.
