As April fast approaches, employers should make sure they are ready to implement the increases to statutory pay, as well as some other important statutory changes which will come into effect next month. These are set out below.
National living wage and national minimum wage
With effect from 1 April 2019
- The national living wage for workers aged 25 and over will increase to £8.21 per hour.
- The national minimum wage for workers aged 21 to 24 (inclusive) will increase to £7.70 per hour.
- The national minimum wage for workers aged 18 to 20 (inclusive) will increase to £6.15 per hour.
- The national minimum wage for workers aged under 18 (but above compulsory school age) will increase to £4.35 per hour.
- The national minimum wage for apprentices will increase to £3.90 per hour.
Statutory sick pay
With effect from 6 April 2019, statutory sick pay will increase to £94.25 per week.
Statutory pay for family-related leave
With effect from 6 April 2019, the statutory rate of pay for maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave will increase to £148.68 per week. As before, if this is more than 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings, the statutory rate of pay will be limited to 90 per cent. The first six weeks of any period of qualifying leave will continue to be paid at 90 per cent of average weekly earnings.
Statutory cap on redundancy pay
With effect from 6 April 2019, the statutory cap on a week’s pay (which is used for redundancy calculations as well as certain employment tribunal awards) will increase to £525. The maximum statutory redundancy pay will increase to £15,750
Changes to itemised pay statements
With effect from 6 April 2019, the right to an itemised pay statement will be extended to workers (not just employees). Employers should ensure that any workers they engage receive pay statements (as their employees currently do) for pay periods beginning on or after 6 April.
Additionally, for pay periods beginning on or after 6 April, pay statements provided to employees and workers whose pay varies based on the hours worked will need to show the number of hours paid at the variable rate. This will apply not only to hourly paid employees and workers but also to those who receive fixed pay with a variable rate applied to any overtime. In this case, the pay statement will need to show the number of hours of overtime worked.
