The FSB recently surveyed 559 small businesses in the UK and the overwhelming majority (84%) are not using zero- hours contracts. More than half (60%) were paying all staff £7.83 an hour before this became the National Living Wage rate for over 25s in April 2018.
FSB National Chairman Mike Cherry said:
“Very few of our members use zero-hours contracts. Where they do, they’re creating arrangements that work for both employer and employee alike. Small firms often play host to the kinds of supportive, flexible and family-centred working environments than can be found lacking in big corporates. What today’s findings show, once again, is that they also reward staff fairly.” The FSB is calling on the Government to raise the Apprenticeship Minimum Wage rate. Apprentices under the age of 19 are currently paid £3.70 an hour. With 70 per cent of small firms saying school leavers are ill-prepared for the workplace, FSB is also urging policymakers to bring back compulsory work experience for students under the age of 16. Among small businesses that have seen wage bills rise as the result of April’s NLW increase, seven in ten (70%) are reducing profitability or absorbing costs. Four in ten (41%) are increasing prices and one in three (30%) are curtailing investment plans.
The impact of a higher NLW is felt particularly acutely in certain sectors. A significant majority of both small retailers (60%) and accommodation & food services firms (71%) report that the new rate is putting upward pressure on wages.
Read the full report from the FSB.
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Employees are lending their employers over £300 million through expenses every month 17 August 2018
According to new research from Conferma, 36 percent of employees in the UK use their own money to pay for work- related expenses at least once per month. The average individual expense claim is £72.20.
The research from Conferma, the fintech company specialising in virtual payment technology, shows that 1-in-3 have experienced cashflow issues due to slow expense reimbursement and 38 percent have been caused stress due to the time it takes to get their expenses repaid. 1009 UK adults currently in employment were surveyed for this research and according to the findings it is estimated that employees in the UK are effectively lending their employers £321 million a month through expenses, leading to a feeling they are at times acting as a bank to their own employer. 41 percent of employees admitted they would stop spending money on a business expense if they had to wait a significant amount of time to be repaid. Almost one quarter (19 percent) said they would stop undertaking business travel and a further 43 percent were prepared to halt meeting current or prospective customers and undertaking marketing activities altogether.
Commenting, Simon Barker, Co-Founder and CEO of Conferma, said:
“The scale of this issue identified in these findings has taken us by surprise. We knew it was a problem, and one we are working hard to address, but the impact of this on both employees but also employers really is cause for concern.
It simply should not be the case in today’s world that individuals, particularly the low-paid, are having to hold back personal spending due to the delay in expense repayment. Likewise, it is staggering that a single business opportunity should be missed due to an employee’s decision to hold off marketing because of these inefficiencies.
This is a problem that is understandable in 1988 but not 2018. Businesses must do more to address this issue for their own benefit as well as the wellbeing of their own staff.”
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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