It's All About People - 21st November 2024

READ TIME - 3 minute read

Welcome Back

This week’s It’s All About People covers:

📈 The cost increases on the way in terms of national minimum wage

⚠️ Don’t Get Caught Out!

🤔 Why this affects you, even if you don’t pay minimum wage

✅ What You Can Do Now:

🎁 Freebies in 2025

🗓️ Events coming up

With less than 5 weeks to go, I enjoyed a day off yesterday and went Christmas shopping. I am sure it gets harder as the “children” get older to find those little surprise presents for under the tree!

At Gateway HR we have all made our meal choices for our Christmas meal, and we are starting to get questions from clients about Christmas Parties.

So, in the words of Perry Como “It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like Christmas”.

Talking retail and hospitality (and others of course), there has been a lot of press in relation to the impact of budget changes and that prices may need to go up

Some of this is in relation to employer national insurance contributions, and next year we can add minimum wage changes that will affect businesses of all sizes starting 1 April 2025.

Let’s go… 👇️ 

📈 Here’s the headline news:

• The National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 21+ will rise 6.7% to £12.21/hour—adding up to £1,400 annually for a full-time worker.

• For 18-20-year-olds, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will see its largest-ever increase, up 16% from £8.60 to £10/hour—a pay boost of around £2,500 annually for full-time workers.

• Apprentices: A rise from £6.40 to £7.55/hour.

This is potentially a HUGE increase to your costs, and so similar to my email a few weeks ago - make sure you are employing the right number of people and all of them are adding value.

⚠️ Don’t Get Caught Out!
Each year the Government publishes it’s “name and shame” list of employers who have not paid the national minimum wage, and been fined. These fines can be 200% of the underpayment, and of course reputation damage.

It would be easy to assume that these are smaller employers who do not know the law or chose to ignore it. However, if you look at the list published in February this year there were some large household names on there.

How does this happen? It is crucial to remember that even if someone’s basic hourly rate meets the requirements, if you then make any deductions (e.g. for uniform, training) this can push them below NMW and therefore you are in breach.

So, make sure that whoever does your payroll is aware of this and is doing it correctly.

🤔 Why this affects you, even if you don’t pay minimum wage:

Rising wage rates devalue your existing pay structure, narrowing the gap between entry-level and more senior roles.

You may need to consider increases other salaries in order to maintain these differentials.

✅ What You Can Do Now:

1. Review your payroll and deductions to ensure full compliance with the new rates.

2. Plan ahead for the impact on pay structures and budgets.

3. Make sure that everyone you employ is doing a great job and adding value. If not then find out why and address this.

📧 In 2025 I am hoping to really grow the reach of this newsletter, and would really appreciate your help. For those that do refer people to our newsletter, there will be a range of thank you freebies coming your way.

🎁 Simply use the link below, and then keep an eye on your inbox in 2025 for the goodies.

Until next time, have a great week.

Emma

P.S. If you are not a Hub member why not give it a try for FREE FOR A MONTH you can do that here.

P.P.S. If we have not connected on LinkedIn yet, I would love to connect

Events to Join in the coming weeks (click on the links to join us)

Lunch and Learn - Creating Your 2025 People Plan (free to all clients, £35+VAT for non-clients) - 10th December 12 - 1pm

Make Work Pay – Labour’s 100 Day Plan for HR & Leaders (Free Webinar) - 11th December 12-1pm

HR Clinic (free to all, come and ask your HR questions) - 17th December 12-1pm