New Payslip Law Changes from April 2019

New legislation brought in from 6 April 2019 under The Employment Rights Act 1996, means that UK employers have to provide greater detail on payslips to every worker on their payroll, not just those classified as employees. Workers may include contractors, freelancers, and various other types of non-employee workers. A person is generally classed as a ‘worker’ if:

• they have a contract or other arrangement to carry out work or services personally for a reward (the contract doesn’t have to be written)
  
• their reward is money or a benefit in kind, for example, the promise of a contract or future work
  
• they only have a limited right to send someone else to do the work (subcontract)
  
• they have to turn up for work even if they don’t want to
  
• their employer has to have work for them to do as long as the contract or arrangement lasts
  
• they aren’t doing the work as part of their own limited company in an arrangement where the ‘employer’ is actually a customer or client. 

Currently, employers must provide detail on payslips such as:

• an employee’s gross salary/wages
  
• specific deductions (e.g. Tax and NIC etc.)
  
• net salary/wage amount received. 

With effect from 6 April 2019, employers will need to include additional information about the number of paid hours an employee has worked. Where the amount of salary or wages varies according to time worked, the total number of hours worked in respect of the variable amount of salary or wages must be itemised as either a single aggregate figure or separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay.

Employers will need to ensure that their payroll processes are adjusted to collect the information required and amend the format of their payslips to include the additional information.

Please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our team for more information regarding the payslip law changes.