On 01 April 2025, The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2025 came into force and ICB points you to the following links:
The Rates
Gov.UK has been updated with the revised rates. It is correct that the rates change on 01 April every year but it is not correct to imply they are effective on that date. Therefore:
The Effective Date
As ICB has published before, it is the legislation that is effective 01 April 2025, from a legislative perspective, the rate at which a worker is entitled to be paid all depends on the pay reference period. This is the period of time for which the worker is paid:
- If the pay reference period starts on 01 April 2025, the new rates must be paid from that date. Commonly, a worker who is paid monthly will be paid from the first to the last day of the month;
- However, if the pay reference period does not start on Tuesday 01 April 2025, the new rates are effective from the start of the first full pay reference period after that date
The Acas guidance ‘Example of pay not going up straight away’ provides an example of a worker with a monthly pay reference period that starts on the 16th of one month and ends on the 15th of the following month. This shows how the old rate can be paid up until 15 April but the new rate must be paid from 16 April (the start of the first full pay reference period on or after 01 April).
For Bookkeepers
As we have said before, this is the legislative position, however, there is nothing wrong with an employer choosing to pay the new rates midway through a pay reference period if that is what they choose. This may mean, though, that bookkeepers will have to pay at one rate up until 31 March 2024 and another from 01 April 2025.
It is good to point out this statutory position again (which does go against all media coverage that says implicitly that workers will be entitled to higher pay from 01 April 2025).
