Podcast

Welcome to the E&P Services Podcast Episode 03.

David, owner of E&P Services UK Ltd takes us through the current minimum wage for someone over 21 and the proposed increase in the NMW. We also discuss staff wage reviews, employee rewards and how a business must stay compliant.

The questions:

1. What is the current minimum wage for someone over twenty-one and is this set to increase?
   
   
2. Is there a difference to the minimum wage between working in London and outside the capital?
   
   
3. Should a business audit all their employees to establish who is being paid what?
   
   
4. Do worker rewards ie benefits in kind affect the National Minimum wage?
   
   
5. What should a business take into consideration regarding the National Minimum Wage, for instance, is a business at risk of being fined for non-compliance?

Listen

Transcript

Jim [00:00:02] Welcome to the E&P services employment advice in five minutes podcast. E&P services is an employment and payroll company based in Liverpool and servicing businesses all over the UK. The company motto is big enough to cope, small enough to care. I’m your host, Jim Kinloch, and with me is the founder and owner of E&P services, David Du-Feu. A font of all things useful to know about employment in the UK. Thank you for joining us today, David. And let’s get on with helping businesses get to grips with employment in the UK, including the current legislation. Every episode of our podcast is aimed at answering five questions in five minutes. So one question per minute. This is episode three fair pay and the national minimum wage. So the first question, David, is what is the current minimum wage for someone over 21? And is this set to increase?

David [00:01:00] Hi, Jim. Good to see you. Um, yes, thanks for the, um, the question. So the current national minimum wage for anybody aged 21 and over sits at £11.44. However, you’ll have seen, as I’m sure many listeners will have seen, also the increase proposed post budget that is going to £12.21 from April 25th. So, um, yeah, around £0.80 or give or take increase from April of next year. £12.21.

Jim [00:01:35] That’s a very full answer. Thank you David. Now question two is there a difference to the minimum wage between working in London and outside the capital?

David [00:01:47] The national minimum wage stays the same. However there is something called the real living wage, which is unofficial. Um, really, however it’s put forward by the Living Wage Foundation charity, who suggested that it’s based on living costs, um, for the area in which people are living. So in London that would be £13.85. And they suggest that outside of London and everywhere else in the UK, in essence it would be £12.60. So there is a difference between the real living wage and the national minimum wage. But no, the national minimum wage doesn’t change based on your location. It still remains. 1144 now going to 1221 from April of next year.

Jim [00:02:35] That’s a fulsome answer. Thank you. David. Should a business regularly review staff wages to establish who is being paid what?

David [00:02:44] It certainly should do. And again, I’m a big stickler for this. And it’s something that I always discuss with companies because not only do they need to keep on the right side of the law with regards this, because non-payment of national minimum wage can lead to penalties of up to £20,000 per worker affected and also HMRC can force underpayments to be rectified.

David [00:03:10] As soon as possible basically. So a company doesn’t want to be in that situation. It’s also from the individual employee or worker’s point of view. Nice to have regular reviews because I think, you know, having been there myself in years gone by, if you’re not having those reviews and people aren’t talking to you about your hourly rate, sometimes you can feel a little bit undervalued. So I always feel that it’s nice to have these reviews. I’m not suggesting every week, but perhaps, you know, every six months or so, have a review, see where you’re at in terms of hourly rate, and see what can be done.

Jim [00:03:41] Good for employee morale, I suppose.

David [00:03:44] Certainly is. Certainly is.

Jim [00:03:46] Right. Uh, so our next question, uh, do you offer any form of employee rewards as part of your service?

David [00:03:55] We do, and we have done actually for some time now. We offer an employee benefits package, which enables those that work with us to access various high street discounts. Money off at the cinema. Sometimes it’s even two for one tickets at certain times. Also discounts at various restaurants. So we try and provide a a nice incentive, if you like, for those that are working with us. And that isn’t something that comes at a cost to them. The cost is very much borne by us. We cover everything for them. We just want to give those a little reward, um, that that work with us. Really?

Jim [00:04:35] Excellent. Now, our final question today, I think one of the most important ones that you can answer is, what should a business take into consideration regarding the national minimum wage? For instance, is a business at risk of being fined for non-compliance?

David [00:04:53] It is Jim. It is, and as touched upon in my earlier question as your earlier answer to your question, The non-payment of National Minimum Wage, or NMW, as it’s often abbreviated to, can lead to penalties of up to £20,000 per worker affected. And as I said, HMRC can force any underpayment whatsoever to be rectified as soon as possible and companies do not want to be in that situation and they can go back as well. So if people have been consistently underpaid for some time, that can the fines can be pretty onerous on on any business.

Jim [00:05:32] Excellent. So David Du-Feu E&P Services Limited, thank you for your invaluable insights around employment in the UK. You can contact David by visiting the website epservicesukltd.co.uk.

Jim [00:05:46] UK. Everything discussed in this podcast was correct at time of recording. E&P services are not employment lawyers and advise you to confer with a qualified employment lawyer.

If you would like to know more about the questions in this episode then please call the team for a friendly chat.

[image credit: Toon Lambrechts, unsplash.com]

Welcome to the E&P Services Podcast Episode 01.

In this episode we answer these questions:

1. How are you today?
2. Why did you decide to set up E and P services?
3. What’s the biggest problem you help businesses overcome?
4. Have you seen any increase in inquiries from clients recently given the upcoming employment law reforms?
5. Which sectors do you work most closely with?

Listen

Transcript

Jim [00:00:00] Welcome to the E&P services Employment Advice 5 in 5 podcast. We answer five employment questions in five minutes. E&P services is an employment and payroll company based in Liverpool and servicing businesses all over the UK. The company motto is big enough to cope and small enough to care. I’m your host, Jim Kinloch, and with me is the founder and owner of E&P services, David Du-Feu. A font of all things useful to know about employment in the UK. Thank you for joining us today, David. Um, let’s get on with helping businesses get to grips with employment in the UK, including the current legislation.

David [00:00:41] Thanks, Jim. Good to see you.

Jim [00:00:43] Every episode of our podcast is aimed at answering five questions in five minutes. So one question per minute. This is episode one about employment and payroll services. So how are you today, David?

David [00:00:55] Very well Jim. Thank you. Yeah. Keeping busy.

Jim [00:00:58] Good man. And so our next question is, why did you decide to set up E and P services?

David [00:01:06] Okay, so my background’s post university was education recruitment. So I was involved with helping supply teachers in and around the Liverpool and Manchester areas find work. During my time in education recruitment I worked closely with a couple of payroll umbrella companies. Saw what they did well. But on the flip side, what I felt they didn’t do so well. And because of that, I thought there was a real opportunity to set something up that would benefit clients that work with us.

Jim [00:01:39] So having said that, what’s the biggest problem you help businesses overcome?

David [00:01:44] We help businesses overcome the whole issue of disguised employment. To clarify that briefly, if you’re a company owner or a manager of an organisation and you have a workforce, you may allow certain people to be self-employed when really they shouldn’t be classed as self-employed. We help overcome that whole issue and area because we will employ the staff on your behalf, and you can utilise our employment vehicle in order to do so.

Jim [00:02:12] Excellent. Now, have you seen any increase in inquiries from clients recently given the upcoming employment law reforms?

David [00:02:20] We have. We have. We’ve taken on a couple of new clients. Post-budget. We’ve also had a number of inquiries. More questions and queries. Jim. If I’m honest, people asking, um, about the employers National insurance rate increases, the fact that they’re increasing from 13.8% to 15% from April of next year. And also the debate around the threshold reduction from 5000, sorry, from 9100 down to £5,000. So that obviously means now in real terms, employers will need to start paying um from um quicker than before basically.

Jim [00:03:00] And um, final question in this episode, Which sectors do you work most closely with?

David [00:03:07] Sectors for us are typically healthcare, education and hospitality, but we’re not limited to sector and we’re certainly not restricted. We’ve started working as well with a local cleaning company because really for us, it’s all about the employment status and how we can help companies overcome any issues with that. But also, Jim, we give peace of mind and I think nowadays that’s what companies and organisations need.

Jim [00:03:35] Indeed. Right. David Du-Feu, E&P Services Limited thank you for your invaluable insights around employment in the UK. You can contact David by visiting the website, epservicesukltd.co.uk. Everything discussed in this podcast was correct at the time of recording. EP services are not employment lawyers and advise you to confer with a qualified employment lawyer.

If you would like to know more about the questions in this episode then please call the team for a friendly chat.

^{image: Gabrielle Henderson, unsplah.com}