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: