National Minimum and Living Wage
Increases to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) take effect from 01 April 2022.
- NLW for workers aged 23 and over increases to £9.50 per hour (from £8.91) ;
- NMW for workers aged 21-22 increases to £9.18 per hour (from £8.36);
- NMW for workers aged 18-20 increases to £6.83 per hour (from £6.56);
- NMW for workers under 18 increases to £4.81 per hour (from £4.62); and
- NMW for apprentices increases to £4.81 per hour (from £4.30).
The NLW is the statutory minimum employers must pay their workers aged 23 and above (prior to 1 April 2021, this applied only to workers over 25 years old).
Find out more about NLW and NMW here.
Increases to the limits for tribunal awards and calculations take effect from 6 April 2022
The cap for a weeks’ pay (for the purposes of the statutory redundancy calculation or basic unfair dismissal award) increases from £544 to £571.
The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases from £89,493 to £93,878 (or remains 12 months’ pay, whichever is lower).
Statutory payments increases take effect from April 2022
The rate of weekly Statutory Sick pay will increase from £96.35 to £99.35 from 6 April 2022.
The capped rate for a week’s pay for statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave increases from £151.97 to £156.66 from 3 April 2022 (or be set at 90% of the individual’s weekly earnings if that amount is lower).
National Insurance increases take effect from 6 April 2022
National insurance contributions will also increase by 1.25% from 6 April 2022.
Right to work checks from 6 April 2022
The guidance for checking eligibility to work in the UK has been updated to take account of the move to digital checks only for biometric passport holders from 6 April 2022. Find out more here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-work-checks-employers-guide
Employer’s provision of PPE
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 come into force on 6 April 2022 and extend the obligation to provide PPE to employees to also cover workers. You can find out more here: Personal protective equipment (PPE) at work regulations from 6 April 2022 (hse.gov.uk)
For any advice and information on employment matters and how the Employment team can help, please contact [email protected].