Following on from the previous legal update in March, from the 1st of April 2016 the new National Living wage is in place therefore from this date you will need to pay all employees aged 25 and over £7.20 per hour.
25+ £7.20
20 – 21 £6.70
18 – 20 £5.30
16 – 17 £3.87
Apprentices £3.30
We will see a further increase to the current minimums for other age brackets however this will be from October 2016.
If you fail to pay employees the above minimum per hour then your employee can bring a claim for unlawful deductions and it is a criminal offence!
It’s also key to remember HM Revenue and Customer officers do have the right to carry out checks and request to see payment records. If they find a employee has not been paid the correct rates, then any arrears have to be paid immediately as well as a fine and the possibility of your company being named by the government.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to keep all records to show that you are meeting the requirements of the minimum wage and these should be kept for atleast three years.
The Department for Innovation and Skills have produced the below booklet to help employers to calculate the minimum wage and what falls into the category of being counted and what hours should be counted.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calculating-the-minimum-wage
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