Minimum and Living Wage

The minimum wage a worker should get depends on their age and if they’re an apprentice.

The National Minimum Wage is the minimum pay per hour almost all workers are entitled to. The National Living Wage is higher than the National Minimum Wage - workers get it if they’re over 25.

It does not matter how small an employer is, they still have to pay the correct minimum wage.

Pensions

Under the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must put certain staff into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards it. This is called 'automatic enrolment'. If you employ at least one person you are an employer and you have certain legal duties.

If you don’t comply with your duties, the pensions regulator may take the following enforcement action:

• If you don’t comply, you may face enforcement action including compliance notices, and penalty notices (fines).
• If you receive a penalty notice, you can pay your fine online.
• If you comply late, the pensions regulator will expect you to pay back any missed contributions to put staff in the position they would have been in if you had compiled on time; this would include backdating contributions to the day that your staff member first met the age and earnings criteria to be put into a scheme.
• When backdating contributions, you must pay all the unpaid employer contributions and your staff member must pay theirs, unless you choose to pay it for them. As part of any enforcement action, we may require that you pay your staff member’s contributions as well as your own.
• If you don’t pay your fine, the pensions regulator can recover the debt through the courts.