Employment Law Changes in April 2025

There are several changes to employment law coming into force in April 2025. Employers need to ensure they are aware of and comply with these changes.

These changes include:

National Minimum Wage increases
Statutory Payment Rates increase
Increased Employer National Insurance Contributions
New Neonatal Care Leave and Pay legislation

We have summarised these updates below.

National Minimum Wage

Changes to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage will be in force from 1^st April 2025.

	Current rate (April 2024)	New rate (April 2025)
21 and over (NLW)	£11.44	£12.21
Aged 18-20	£8.60	£10.00
Under 18	£6.40	£7.55
Apprentice	£6.40	£7.55

Statutory Payment Rates

Changes to all statutory payment rates will be in force from 6^th April 2025.

	Current rate (April 2024)	New rate (April 2025)
Statutory Sick Pay (per week)	£116.75	£118.75
Lower earnings limit (per week)	£123	£125

Family Friendly Statutory Payments

Changes to all family-friendly statutory payments will be in force from 6^th April 2025.

	Current rate (April 2024)	New rate (April 2025)
Statutory shared parental pay (ShPP) Statutory rate or 90% of an employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	£184.03	£187.18
Statutory maternity pay (SMP) First six weeks – 90% of an employee’s average weekly earnings. Remaining weeks at the statutory rate or 90% of an employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	£184.03	£187.18
Statutory adoption pay (SAP) First six weeks – 90% of an employee’s average weekly earnings. Remaining weeks at the statutory rate or 90% of employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	£184.03	£187.18
Statutory paternity pay (SPP) Statutory rate or 90% of an employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	£184.03	£187.18
Statutory parental bereavement pay (SPBP) Statutory rate or 90% of an employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	£184.03	£187.18
Statutory neonatal care pay (SNCP) Statutory rate or 90% of an employee’s weekly earnings, whichever is lower.	n/a	£187.18

Employer National Insurance Contributions

Employers will face higher National Insurance Contributions from 6^th April 2025.

The secondary NIC threshold will drop from £9,100 to £5,000.
The employer NIC rate will rise from 13.8% to 15%.
To ease some of the burden, the Employment Allowance will increase to £10,500, benefiting smaller businesses.

How can employers prepare for this increased cost?

Redundancies should be the last resort for businesses.

Implement strong financial reporting and forecasting to help improve decision-making and identify any cash flow issues early.
Operate your organisation efficiently and review expenses regularly to identify areas of possible savings, e.g., technology to reduce workload
Introduce a salary exchange scheme – helps to reduce employer NICs as employees will take home a lower salary in exchange for a higher pension contribution/additional benefit
Use self-employed staff where possible and/or outsource in areas of your business, i.e., marketing, payroll, HR
Downsize your workspace if possible – this could be done through allowing some employees to work remotely or developing a hybrid working model within your organisation.

Neonatal Care Leave and Pay

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 will come into force on 6^th April 2025 (applying to babies born on or after 6^th April 2025).

This will provide employed parents with the day-one right of up to 12 weeks of leave if their babies are admitted into neonatal care. This applies to babies admitted within the first 28 days of life who stay in neonatal care for at least 7 days. In addition, if eligible, parents will be entitled to up to 12 weeks of statutory neonatal care pay.

We discuss this new legislation in further detail, including how to prepare as employers in our recent article, please click here to read.

At HPC, we are here to support you with these upcoming changes to employment law in April 2025. Our team can help update your company’s employment handbook and create new policies in line with the changes in legislation.

To find out more information or to discuss the changes to employment law in April 2025, please get in contac t with our team of experts.

T: 0330 107 1037

E: contact@hpc.uk.com

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Employment Law Changes in April 2025