> Payroll tasks / Paying people / Paying employees / Minimum wage check / Paying the minimum wage

Paying the minimum wage


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You can set up your software to check that your employees are being paid the minimum wage. This includes the rate for apprentices. When you use the Enter Payments option to process your payroll, the software identifies if an employee's salary falls below the specified minimum wage. You can then increase one of their payments to make up the shortfall.

Note: Paying the national minimum wage (NMW) is a legal requirement of employers and covers the majority of workers who are above the compulsory school leaving age. As an employer, you should understand your statutory obligations for paying the minimum wage. For help, visit HMRC national minimum wage web page.

You can:

Set up your software so that employees are paid the correct amount according to the minimum wage band they belong to.
Identify those employees whose pay has fallen below the minimum wage, and make the necessary adjustments when processing your payroll.
Specify which employees are employed as apprentices ensuring they are paid the correct minimum wage rate.
Be assured that employees who change minimum wage bands due to an age increase are paid correctly.
Update the minimum wage bandwidths and rates stored in your software following a legislation change. This ensures that employees who qualify for the minimum wage are paid the correct amount.

To set up the minimum wage check

So that your software can accurately perform the minimum wage check, you must complete the following tasks:

Note: Before you set up your software, please read the information provided in the Questions and Answers section.

Check the software

Set up payments and deductions

Set up employees

To apply the minimum wage

From the employee list select the employees you want to process > Payroll > Enter Payments.
Enter your employee's payment information into the boxes provided > Click Save/Next.
If the employee's salary is below the minimum wage, the Minimum Wage window appears.
From the drop-down list, select the payment you want to change > Adjust.

Note: The drop-down list only contains payments that have been set up with a status of Variable. To ensure the minimum wage calculation is performed correctly, the payment you adjust must have the same rate recorded in both Enter Payments and the Employee's Record.

If these values are different, your employees may not be paid correctly. If the payment you want to adjust is used as a base for any factored payment, this part of the factored payment is also adjusted automatically.

Need more help? You may find the Questions and Answers section useful.

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