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National Living Wage - Check Payslips for Pay Rise - Fleximize

Check Your Pay for National Living Wage, Suggests UK Government

Workers are urged to check payslips from Friday 1 April

29th March 2016

By Elma Glasgow

With just days to go before the National Living Wage (NLW) kicks in, the government is urging workers eligible for the salary rise to check their pay slips from April.

This advice comes as new research by the government's Step Up For Britain campaign reveals 32% of people earning the National Minimum Wage never look at their wage slips to check their pay is correct. There are regional differences: workers in the East of England and North West are least likely to check they're getting the right salary – 41% in both regions never check. People in the North East are the most diligent, with 85% checking their wage slip.

How to check you're on the right salary

To encourage more workers to make sure they get the rise, the government recommends 3 simple steps:

  1. Go to the .gov national minimum wage rates page to check if you're eligible for the NLW.
  2. Use this online calculator to find out what increase you'll get.
  3. Check payslips after Friday 1 April.

Conversations between boss and workers

Employers need to be prepared to talk to staff if they discover, after checking pay slips, that they're not getting the living wage. It seems workers around the UK are prepared to start conversations with their bosses if this happens: 80% of people surveyed said they're "very likely" or "likely" to raise the issue with their employer.

People aged 25 and over, who are on the minimum wage, can expect their current hourly rate of £6.70 to go up by 50p. The change will result in annual increase of £900.

Impact of higher wage bill

However, as reported by Fleximize late last year, there are concerns among businesses that the NLW will lead to redundancies and higher customer prices, due to the rise in staff costs.