In August’s Agent Update, HMRC provided the first update from their National Minimum Wage (NMW) Promote Team. This will be the first of a series of quarterly updates covering useful hints and tips about NMW and National Living Wage compliance, changes to policy and legislation, and details of the range of support provided by the team which employers (and their agents) may find helpful. (For the purposes of this article, we are using NMW to cover both the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage.)

Naming and Shaming

Getting the NMW is important not just for your staff, but also for your reputation. Since 2018, employers who make mistakes, whether or not they are intentional, with their NMW payments can risk being named and shamed by the Government.

In June, over 200 employers were named for failing to pay a total of 63,000 workers almost £5 million in breach of NMW rules. The companies named ranged significantly in size, from sole traders through to large companies, including a number of well-known names - which goes to show that anyone can make mistakes with the NMW. In addition to having their names published, these employers were charged penalties totalling nearly £7 million.

Support for Employers

For employers, the Promote team have started to provide live webinars about salaried hours and the NMW. These are intended to cover the key points about salaried hours work including:

• the basic criteria that must be met for a worker to be performing salaried hours work for minimum wage purposes;
• changes resulting from amendments to legislation in April 2020;
• why records matter; and
• how to put things right if a mistake is found.

The sessions will also include a myth-buster, to tackle some of the long-standing misconceptions about how salaried hours and the NMW interact.

The team are also running a programme of interventions around the country that will target multiple sectors in a specific location. At these interventions, the team provide employers with education and guidance on common NMW issues and encourage them to review their pay arrangements to satisfy themselves they are complying with the law. To date, the team have visited eight locations and are planning many more such interventions.

The team will also offer some employers a free call with one of their experts to talk about key issues that can lead to NMW underpayments. Where any potential issues are identified, the employer will be given the opportunity to correct them without sanctions such as penalties or naming and shaming.

Support for Agents

In addition to supporting employers, the team are also providing education and guidance on common NMW issues to agents. These awareness sessions are invite only, and are intended to highlight key areas where errors can arise so that agents can better spot and correct these for their clients. To date, these sessions have been attended by over 230 agents, all of whom HMRC report as giving positive feedback after the session.

Feedback request

Finally, the team are keen to hear from employers about what they would like to see in future NMW updates. If you would like to provide comments, HMRC have provided a short survey for employer comments.  

This article reflects the position at the date of publication (14 September 2023). If you are reading this at a later date you are advised to check that that position has not changed in the time since.   

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