Don’t spend it all at once but, the national living wage and other rates of the national minimum wage are set to go up from April next year! The Chancellor announced the increases in his Autumn Budget last month.

For those over 25, the hourly rate will go up from £7.50 to £7.83 (an increase of over 4%). Other rates will go up as follows:

For 21-24 year olds: from £7.05 to £7.38

For 18-20 years olds: from £5.60 to £5.90

For 16 – 17 year olds: from £4.05 to £4.20

For apprentices: from £3.50 to £3.70

Employers must pay these minimum wage rates to all their “workers” – not just those who are employed under a traditional contract of employment as employees but anyone who provides their services personally and who is not running their own business. Recent cases have ruled that those in the so-called “gig” economy who were labelled as “self-employed” by their employers were in fact workers entitled to the minimum wage.

For employers whose staff are currently paid the minimum wage this will obviously increase costs, not just wages but national insurance contributions and pension contributions will also go up as a result of these changes.

Employers need to ensure that their payroll systems are set up to implement this change and individuals need to check that they are being paid correctly from April 2018.

If you think you may not have received the national minimum wage you were entitled to, speak to one of our employment law exerts today.