United Kingdom
Employment
Payroll
HR & Labor
Immigration
Public Holidays
Employees can work holidays and instead add them to their yearly vacation time.
January 1: New Years Day
January 2: New Year Holiday
January 3: New Year Holiday
March 17: St Patrick Day
April 14: Good Friday
April 17: Easter Monday
May 1: May Day
May 29: Spring Bank Holiday
July 12: Battle of the Boyne
August 7: August Bank Holiday
August 28: August Bank Holiday
November 30: St Andrews Day
Pension Fund
The tax year in changes in April, which may bring new threshold applicable for SS and tax purposes.
Workplace pension contribution is mandatory, and can be postponed in the first 3 months of employment contract.
The employer contributes up to 3% of the employee’s earnings, the current minimum is 32.60 GBP monthly, however in April the minimum will raise to 67.2 GBP monthly.
As an employer there are duties that you must comply with under the auto enrollment scheme.
You must:
• Comply with your duties
• Have a suitable scheme
• Register your arrangement with The Pensions Regulator
• Auto enroll Eligible jobholders
• Make contributions
• Keep records
• Re-enroll opt outs periodically
You must not:
• Refuse to comply
• Miss your staging date
• Miss making contributions
• Incentive workers to opt out
• Treat workers unfairly.
The employee contributes at least 0.8% of the earnings.
Apprenticeship Levy
Applying to all employers, both corporate businesses and not-for-profit organizations alike, if your annual pay bill is more than £3 million you will need to spend 0.5% of your total pay bill on the Apprenticeship Levy from 6 April 2017.
For the purposes of the levy, an ‘employer’ is someone who is a secondary contributor, with liability to pay Class 1 secondary National Insurance contributions (NICs) for their employees. Due to an allowance of £15,000 per year offset against the levy, the charge will only come into effect if you have an annual pay bill in excess of £3 million.
As an example, if you have an annual pay bill of £5 million, you will pay £10,000 into the levy for that year: (£5m x 0.005) - £15,000 = £10,000 Another way to look at it would be that you are only paying the 0.5% charge on your pay bill over the £3 million threshold: (£5m - £3m) x 0.005 = £10,000 Paid on a monthly basis through your PAYE to HMRC, the levy will accumulate throughout the year
If you do not currently exceed the £3 million threshold, but your organization is rapidly growing, you will need to monitor your monthly pay bill.
Severance Payments
Employees are entitled to severance pay if they have been in the company for 2 years or more. They will receive half a week’s wage for every year worked in the company if they are under 22. They will receive one week’s wages for each full year if they are over 22 but under 41 and one week and half wages for every year if they are 41 and older.
Termination Procedure
The employers must provide 1 week notice if the employee worked for at least a month at the company and 1 week added for each year they have worked if they have been in the company for 2 years or more.
Sick Days
There is no defined entitlement for sick leave.
Employers are obligated to pay their workers Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) during sick leave at a rate of £92.05 per week for up to 28 weeks. SSP is paid from the 3rd day unless they have been paid SSP within the last 8 weeks and are eligible fr it again.
Vacation Days
Employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks (28 days) paid annual leave per year.
Unused leave at end of employment is compensated for in pay.
Expat Benefits
Expat benefits vary depending on the original employment contract agreed with the employer.
Additional Employee Withholdings
1) National Insurance
1) Employers contribute 13.8%.
1) Employees contribute 12%.
Social Security
All employees are assigned a national insurance category latter:
A - All employees apart from those in groups B, C, J, H, M and Z in this table;
B- Married women and widows entitled to pay reduced National Insurance;
C- Employees over the State Pension age;
J- Employees who can defer National Insurance because they’re already paying it in another job;
H- Apprentice under 25
M- Employees under 21;
Z- Employees under 21 who can defer National Insurance because they’re already paying it in another job.
Income of £112 to £155 a week (£486 to £672 a month):
A- 0%
B- 0%
C- N/A
J- 0%
M- 0%
Z- 0%
£155.01 to £827 a week (£672.01 to £3,583 a month):
A- 12%
B- 5.85%
C- N/A
J- 2%
H- 12%
M- 12%
Z- 2%
Over £827 a week (£3,583 a month):
A- 2%
B- 2%
C- N/A
J- 2%
M- 2%
Z- 2%
Income of £112 to £155 a week (£486 to £672 a month):
A- 0%
B- 0%
C- 0%
J- 0%
M- 0%
Z- 0%
£155.01 to £827 a week (£672.01 to £3,583 a month):
A- 13.8%
B- 13.8%
C- 13.8%
J- 0%
H- 13.8%
M- 0%
Z- 0%
Over £827 a week (£3,583 a month):
A- 13.8%
B- 13.8%
C- 13.8%
J- 13.8%
M- 13.8%
Z- 13.8%
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