National Living Wage rises

Planned increases to the National Living and Minimum Wage have gone ahead, despite concerns expressed about how businesses will manage in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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The National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and over rises by 6.2% today, with full-time workers getting around £930 extra over the year.

The full set of rates are:

  • the National Living Wage for those aged 25 and over will increase by 6.2% to £8.72 an hour
  • the National Minimum Wage for those aged 21 to 24 is increasing by 6.5% to £8.20 an hour
  • the National Minimum Wage for those aged 18 to 20 is increasing by 4.9% to £6.45 an hour
  • the National Minimum Wage for those aged under 18 is increasing by 4.6% to £4.55 an hour
  • the rate for apprentices is increasing by 6.4% to £4.15 per hour

Some organisations, such as the Resolution Foundation think tank, have said the increase should be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen businesses such as nurseries really struggling and many forced to close, but the Government says its package of financial support for businesses and workers should mitigate the impact.

Other labour market reforms coming into effect on 6 April include:

  • Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay, implementing a statutory right to a minimum of 2 weeks’ leave for all employed parents if they lose a child under the age of 18, or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. Eligible parents will be able to claim statutory pay while absent from work.
  • workers to receive a day-one statement of rights, which will set out leave and pay entitlements to around 1.5 million people for the first time
  • the scrapping of the Swedish Derogation – an end to the legal loophole which enables some firms to pay agency workers less than permanent staff
  • new agency workers to benefit from a key facts page before signing up with an agency, which will provide clarity on their rights, particularly around their pay
  • just 2% of employees need to make a request for the employer to inform and consult them on issues relating to the business before an employer must commence negotiating such an arrangement. This has been reduced from 10%
  • increasing the reference period for calculating holiday pay for workers with variable hours from 12 to 52 weeks, meaning employers must count back across the last 52 weeks that employee has worked and received pay, to calculate how much holiday pay they should receive. The aim is to ensure that workers’ holiday pay is more reflective of the pay they would have received if they’d been at work.

 





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