2019 National Living/Minimum Wage.

About the author

Mark Taylor

+44 (0)20 7556 1243
taylorm@buzzacott.co.uk

The National Living/Minimum Wage is a statutory requirement for a minimum hourly wage to be payable to workers in the United Kingdom. The Government asked the Low Pay Commission to make recommendations for the National Living/Minimum Wage and are set as high as possible without causing unemployment effects.

The Low Pay Commission has recommended that:

• The National Living Wage (for workers aged 25 and over) should increase from £7.83 to £8.21;
• The rate for 21-24 years olds should increase from £7.38 to £7.70;
• The rate for 18-20 years olds should increase from £5.90 to £6.15;
• The rate for 16-17 years olds should increase from £4.20 to £4.35; and
• The apprentice rate (for apprentices aged under 19 or in their first year of apprenticeship) should increase from £3.70 to £3.90.

Buzzacott’s Troncmaster team have been looking back at past year rises and this year’s rise exceeds the average increase over the last five years:

Mark Taylor, Head of Buzzacott’s Troncmaster team, commented “While the figures for the National Living Wage for Over 25’s break the £8 per hour limit for the first time, allocations from tronc schemes cannot count towards the National Living/Minimum Wage. We would not advocate any employer covering the National Living/Minimum Wage rise by with-holding and utilising service charge monies that would ordinarily be made available for allocation through a tronc scheme”. 

Choosing Buzzacott as your independent troncmaster relieves your staff of the administrative burden of running the tronc. Our troncs safeguard our clients from HMRC challenge, are completely transparent, fully conform with HMRC’s requirements, provide exemption from NICs and offer significant savings to employers and staff.

For further information regarding tronc schemes or the article above, please contact Mark Taylor on +44 (0)20 7556 1243 or alternatively, please complete the form below:

One of the main challenges of any business in the hospitality, leisure and service sectors is how to fairly and ethically distribute tips, gratuities and service charges voluntarily given by customers to staff. We can help you to take out the hassle of this compliance task and by doing so lower staff turnover and provide a motivated, productive workforce who take home more pay at no increased cost to you.

What is Tronc?
A Tronc is a special pay arrangement lets you fairly distribute staff tips, gratuities and service charges given by customers. And you can save a great deal of time, money and hassle by using Buzzacott as your independent Troncmaster.

What are the benefits of having an independent Troncmaster?
• Up to date knowledge of HMRC powers and rules;
• Conform with HMRC requirements and exempt from National Insurance;
• Fair, transparent and ethical;
• Free from employer influence or favouritism and run for the benefit of staff ;
• Staff can get 100% ownership of hard-earned tips, plus a say in how they’re shared out;
• Staff feel valued and rewarded so less likely to move on; and
• Staff and customers can refer to formal rules to allocate and distribute service charges.

*In case you’re wondering, the word stems from the 1920s French term tronc des pauvres –  a collection box for donations to the poor. 

There are some 150,000 businesses in the UK where tipping is common, but the practice is far from transparent. So what’s the solution? How can businesses in the hospitality, leisure and service sectors distribute tips fairly and transparently? Many employers decide to distribute gratuities by adding it to the general payroll. But there’s a drawback: the extra is often taxed as salary, meaning the staff receive it net of Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs). Enter an alternative option, one which benefits all: Troncmaster schemes.

Watch our video below on how a Tronc scheme works, and how it can help your business.