• National Minimum Wage rates for 2025

Yesterday, Government announced its acceptance of the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations on the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), including the National Living Wage (NLW). The rates which will apply from 1 April 2025 are as follows:

You can find here a letter from Baroness Philippa Stroud, Chair of the Low Pay Commission outlining the recommendations, and its summary of evidence can be found here. LPC’s full report will be published in the new year.

We have engaged extensively with the LPC to inform its recommendations, including facilitating a roundtable with members back in September, and submitting written and oral evidence.

We’ll continue to engage with commissioners and Government to ensure that the wider employment rights reforms are workable for retailers, including seeking members feedback on a number of open consultations and have published our latest briefing for members.

• National Insurance contributions (NIC) increases and Autum Budget announcements

In today’s Autum Budget, Government confirmed that National Insurance contributions (NIC) for employers will increase by 1.2%, bringing the total up to 15%.

In addition, the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance (the Secondary Threshold) will be reduced from £9,100 per year to £5,000 per year. These changes will apply from 6 April 2025.

From April 2028, the freeze to income tax and National Insurance contributions thresholds will be lifted and these will be uprated in line with inflation.

The government is extending the employer NICs relief for employers hiring qualifying veterans for a further year from 6 April 2025 until 5 April 2026.

You can here our reaction to the Autunm Budget here and a more detailed analysis can be accessed here. 

If you’d like to share your thoughts on the latest announcements and/or the wider employment rights agenda, please contact me on luiza.gomes@brc.org.uk