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April is always a key date in the employment law calendar when a number of important changes usually take place. This year is no exception. With rises in National Minimum Wage rates, gender pay gap reporting deadlines increases to statutory benefits and Tribunal compensation, businesses need to ensure that they are on top of the latest developments and stay compliant with the law.
The National Living Wage increased on 1 April 2023 from £9.50 to £10.42 per hour for those aged 23 and over. Other new rate increases are:
21-22 year-olds - £10.18 per hour;
18-20 year-olds - £7.49 per hour;
16-17-year-olds - £5.28 per hour
and an increase to the apprentice rate from £4.81 to £5.28 per hour.
Employers should check their pay rates against the new Minimum Wage rates and ensure that, where necessary, they increase remuneration for the first pay reference period beginning on or after 1 April 2023.
The weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) increases on 6 April 2023 to £109.40 per week (previously £99.35). Weekly statutory family-related pay, including maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental, and parental bereavement pay, increases from £156.66 to £172.48, effective as of 2 April 2023.
Employers should ensure that staff on maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement leave, as well as those on sick leave, are paid these new statutory minimum rates and that all relevant policies and procedures are reviewed and amended to reflect these changes.
New limits on Statutory Redundancy Pay also come into force on 6 April 2023. Employers dismissing employees for redundancy are legally required to pay those with two years’ service an amount based on the employee’s weekly pay, length of service, and age. This weekly pay is subject to a maximum amount which, from 6 April 2023, increases to £643.
For redundancy dismissals taking place on or after 6 April 2023, businesses should ensure that figures for statutory redundancy payments are calculated on the basis of this new maximum amount.
The annual employment Tribunal award limit changes apply to dismissals occurring on or after 6 April 2023. The limit on compensatory awards for unfair dismissal rates rises from £93,878 to £105,707. Applying the revised statutory redundancy weekly cap (of £643) means that the maximum basic award and maximum statutory redundancy payment now increases to £19,290.
Employers should be mindful that dismissals for whistleblowing or for raising certain health and safety issues, as well as those dismissals which relate to unlawful discrimination, continue to have no limit on the level of compensation awarded.
Any employer with 250 or more employees on a specific date each year – known as the “snapshot date” is now legally obliged to report their gender pay gap data. Gender pay gap information must be reported and published within a year of the snapshot date. The reporting deadline for public sector employers is 30 March 2023, and for private companies and voluntary organisations the reporting deadline is 4 April 2023. For the first time since 2020, furlough will not impact the figures, providing a more accurate comparison to pre-pandemic figures.
Whilst not strictly an employment law change, it has been confirmed that 2023 will see an additional Bank Holiday to commemorate the King’s Coronation on Monday, 8 May 2023. Many employers may wonder whether they are legally required to honour the extra Bank Holiday. There is no statutory right to paid time off on 8 May or on any other Bank Holiday. The day is to be treated by employers in the same way as other extra Bank Holidays. This means employers should consult their contract wording to determine whether they must provide this day off as paid leave.
Employers have the option to include all UK Bank Holidays in their employee statutory leave entitlement, and most contracts are written in the context of the number of Public/Bank Holidays in a year. However, exact wording, and therefore exact entitlements, can differ from contract to contract. Even where contracts do not entitle employees to the day off, employers may choose to offer it as a paid day of leave anyway. If a business is not closing on Monday, 8 May, employers may ask employees who want the day off to make a request in line with the normal annual leave procedure.
If you would like any further information concerning employment law changes or any other employment-related issue, please contact Lesley Purveur. You can call on 01636 703333 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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