Business News

National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates increase from 1st April 2024

David Crossley
April 1, 2024

From the 1st April 2024, all workers aged 21 and over will be entitled to the National Living Wage.

The rates change on 1st April every year, the current rates and those for the new year are:

23 and over 21 to 22 21 and over 18 to 20 Under 18 Under 18
1st April 2024 £11.44 £8.60 £6.40 £6.40
1st April 2023 £10.42 £10.18 £7.49 £5.28 £5.28

Please see more details from HMRC here.

How to make sure you're paying the new rates correctly?

If you operate a salary for an employee who is not a director of the Limited Company, it is important to review their working hours and rate paid, to ensure they do not fall below the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage rates. Please get in touch with your dedicated accountant to discuss this in more detail if you are not sure.

You can also perform an annual calculation by taking the total number of hours worked per week by the employee, and multiplying by the number of weeks in a year. Then, divide this number from the annual salary before any deductions.

For example, if an employee has a gross salary of £34,632 and works 36.7 hours per week, the hourly rate is £34,632 / 1,908.4 hours (36.7 hours x 52 weeks ) = £18.14 per hour (round down when calculating for minimum wage).

Nice to know: According to the Office for National Statistics, the average actual weekly hours of work for full-time workers (seasonally adjusted) to 31st January 2024 was 36.7 hours per week, and the average full-time salary in the UK in January 2024 based on weekly earnings, was £34,632, an increase of £1,872 on last years total of £32,760 calculated to December 2022.

Please get in touch with your dedicated accountant to discuss this in more detail or email payroll@cleveraccounts.com, if you would like to make changes to your employees rates of pay, in April 2024.

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