For pay periods commencing from the 1st April 2022, the new National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates come into force.
Employers who fail to ensure that their staff are paid at least minimum wage for all work-time will be in breach of National Minimum Wage law and are committing criminal activity. those found to have broken the law face their business being named and shamed and penalties as well as having to make good any underpayments identified to those employees who lost out.
Employers – take action
Employers need to verify and apply:
- That rates of pay are checked and raised according to the age of employees and apprentices are also paid the applicable rates due
- That time worked is correctly recorded and paid at or above minimum pay levels
- That those on maternity leave, where the rise in minimum pay would have resulted in a pay increase, that their earnings related Statutory Maternity Pay are appropriately increased and topped-up going back to the start of their maternity leave (often referred to as Alabaster).
- That age and apprenticeship Year one end, and training end are monitored to ensure that appropriate minimum pay rates are applied or exceeded.
Breach of NMW is not about payroll, but about an employer understanding their whole process of work. What time is recorded, what about training, uniform, the structure of benefits and understanding the parts of pay which count as NMW pay and which don’t.
A regular audit to assess and review is good practice.
PAYadvice.UK 1/4/2022
