National living wage – Are you prepared?

On April 1^st 2016 the new National Living Wage will come into play. Employees aged 25 and over (not in the first year of an apprenticeship) will be legally entitled to at least £7.20 per hour, a fifty pence increase on the current living wage of £6.70.

As an employer, you will have a responsibility to ensure that you meet this increase on or by April 1^st – This living wage increase will be enforced with the same strength as the current National Minimum Wage.

Ahead of this change there are a few steps you may want to take to ensure that you are prepared for it:

• You need to be sure of which employees within your organization are eligible for this increase ahead of this change.
• You need to take the necessary payroll action
• Inform your employees of this change
• Run an audit of employees outside of this age range, just to ensure that there are also on the right pay for their age in accordance with the National Minimum Wage.

(You can find more details on the National Minimum Wage here )