Our Employer update reviews key areas in payroll practice and employment law:
Minimum Wage Rates: New minimum wage rates effective from 1 April 2026, with the National Living Wage for those 21 and over set at £12.71 per hour.
Employer Risk: Employers must ensure compliance with minimum wage laws, especially regarding salary sacrifice schemes and excess hours worked by salaried employees.
Employment Rights Bill: Significant changes include day one employment rights, flexible working, a new enforcement body, changes to SSP, and new rules on unfair dismissal and zero-hours contracts, effective from 2026.
Mandatory Payrolling of Benefits in Kind:
Now delayed until April 2027, employers will be required to report most benefits in kind via the routine payroll process with income tax paid in real time.
Salary Sacrifice Pensions:
With effect from April 2029, only the first £2,000 of employee pension contributions paid via salary sacrifice will be exempt from NICs
Fair Work Agency:
The new Fair Work Agency is due to be implemented in April 2026 with comprehensive powers of enforcement across a wider range of employment issues than existing enforcement bodies.
