National Minimum Wage penalties to double 2 September 2015
The Government has announced further measures to ensure people receive the pay they are entitled to. The measures include working with payroll providers to make sure payroll software contains checks that ensure employees are being paid what they should be.
The measures include:
doubling the penalties for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage and the new National Living Wage increasing the enforcement budget setting up a new team in HMRC to take forward criminal prosecutions for those who deliberately do not comply ensuring that anyone found guilty will be considered for disqualification from being a company director for up to 15 years. A new team of compliance officers in HMRC will investigate the most serious cases of employers not paying the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage when it is introduced in April 2016. The team will have the power to use all available sanctions, including penalties, prosecutions and naming and shaming the most exploitative employers. The enforcement budget for the National Minimum Wage and Living Wage will also be increased in 2016 to 2017. Future budgets will be agreed as part of the Spending Review process. Employers who fail to pay staff at least the minimum wage they are legally entitled to will have to pay double what they do now. This reform is intended to increase compliance and make sure those who break the law face tough consequences. A new Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation will be created to oversee enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (a non-departmental public body of the Home Office). The Director will set priorities for enforcement based on a single view of the intelligence about exploitation and non-compliance. A consultation will be launched in the Autumn on the introduction of a new offence of aggravated breach of labour market legislation. The consultation will also propose giving the Gangmasters Licensing Authority additional investigatory powers and a wider remit to tackle serious labour exploitation more effectively. The government has also announced it will improve the guidance and support made available to firms on compliance and will work with payroll providers to be sure payroll software contains checks that staff are being paid what they are entitled to. The calculation of penalties on those who do not comply will rise from 100% of arrears to 200%. This will be halved if employers pay within 14 days. The overall maximum penalty of £20,000 per worker remains unchanged.
CIPP response to the Consultation on the National Minimum Wage 1 October 2015
The CIPP have submitted their response to the Consultation on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) which aims to support the work of the Low Pay Commission in gathering views on the existing rates and evidence on the potential impact of the National Living Wage (NLW).
Following the announcement in the Summer Budget that ‘ The Budget will support working people by introducing a new National Living Wage’ the Low Pay Commission (LPC) were tasked with producing two reports.
The first report is due by early February 2016 on the future level of the NMW rates and the second report by October 2016 which will provide recommendations for the rate of the NLW from April 2017.
The Government has set an ambition that the NLW should continue to increase each April to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020 with the aspiration of a £9 NLW rate by 2020.
Alongside this the Government is undertaking a review in to the NMW cycle with the intention to align all changes to NMW - the earliest this could happen, subject to review, is April 2017.
Summary of key findings
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 243 of 453
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