UK: Pay and benefits

Updating author: Jo Broadbent, Hogan Lovells International LLP

Original author: Darren Newman

See the legal services provided by the updating author of International > United Kingdom, including any discounts/offers for subscribers.

Summary

• Pay is subject to relatively little statutory regulation. (See General)
• There are no specific legal requirements in relation to the method and timing of payment of wages, although the intervals at which payment is made must be specified in the worker's written statement of employment particulars, and workers have the right to be provided with a written itemised pay statement. (See Payment of wages)
• Workers have the right not to have any deduction made from their wages unless the deduction is authorised by a statutory or contractual provision, or a separate agreement. (See Deductions)
• Employees must receive equal pay for equal work carried out by a comparator of the opposite sex in the same employment. (See Equal pay)
• Organisations with 250 or more employees must publish information on the difference in rates of pay between male and female employees. (See Gender pay gap reporting)
• Workers aged 16 and over must be paid at least the statutory national minimum wage. (See Minimum wage)
• Employers may provide employees with a workplace pension. Under a statutory auto-enrolment scheme, employers must enrol eligible employees into a workplace pension scheme meeting certain requirements. (See Pensions)
• Employers must deduct income tax and national insurance contributions from their employees' pay under a statutory "pay as you earn" (PAYE) scheme, and remit the sums deducted to HM Revenue and Customs, along with their own national insurance contributions. (See Income tax and social security)
• Employees who are unfit to work because of sickness or injury are generally entitled to receive flat-rate statutory sick pay from their employer for up to 28 weeks of absence, from the fourth day of absence. (See Sick pay)
• Employers are not required to provide employees with any non-pay benefits, although some employers do so on a contractual or discretionary basis. (See Benefits in kind)
• Where an employer is unable to offer any work to an employee who would otherwise be required to work on that day - and who is available for work - the employer must, subject to exceptions, pay the employee a "guarantee payment" for the day. (See Guarantee payments)