With the arrival of the new tax year comes new payroll legislation. Keeping up to date with the latest changes in payroll legislation is crucial as not complying with these changes, or being aware of them, could get your company in serious trouble.
Key changes for 2017/18
Gender pay gap reporting
From 6th April 2017, new legislation states that employers of 250+ staff have until 4th April (for businesses and charities or 30th March for the public sector) to report 6 figures every year on their gender wage difference. These are (as detailed on the government website):
- The mean gender pay gap
- The median gender pay gap
- The mean gender bonus gap
- The median gender bonus gap
- The proportion of men and women receiving bonuses
- The proportion of men and women when divided into four groups ordered from the lowest to the highest pay
These figures must be stated on the employer’s public-facing website and a government website. If the organisation is a business or charity, then the figures must be accompanied by a “written statement”. This statement must, at least, confirm that the published data is accurate and be signed by a chief executive or someone in a similar role to verify. If the employer wishes, they can add to the written statement a section detailing why the figures are what they are (a pay gap does not always mean that there is discrimination) and what the organisation is doing to close the gap.
Smaller companies are not obligated to publish their figures but may do voluntarily.
National Living Wage
Another change this tax year is the increase of the National Living Wage. We have explained the difference between Minimum and National Living Wage in a previous article but, put simply, if you are over 25 you should be paid a minimum of £7.50 an hour. This will continue to rise up to £9 an hour by 2020 as detailed by the former chancellor, George Osbourne.
Apprentice levy
The apprentice levy is another change to payroll legislation and came into effect from April 2017. At the moment, it mainly applies to companies with a wage bill of over £3 million per year, however, there will be more details applying to smaller companies being announced in the future.
The companies with wage bills greater than £3 million will be required to pay a 0.5% levy on that bill. This levy will be offset by a “levy allowance” of £15,000 per year which will be taken off the total. These funds will then be available to the companies to pay apprenticeship providers who are government approved. The funds will also be added to by the government as they will add 10% to everything paid into the “digital apprenticeship service account”.
For help adapting your business or company to any or all of these changes, get in touch with Cintra Payroll. Our team have years of experience with all types of payroll services and can assist with adapting to new legislation.