06 February 2019 
Caroline Jones, Employment tax director
As many of you will be aware the consultation, launched by BEIS into NMW closes on 1st March 2019. We would like to thank those of you who have responded to our call for comments on the consultation, which will be responding to on behalf of our members.
Caroline was invited, on behalf of BUFDG, to take part in a round table discussion at EY’s London offices on 5th February with other interested parties and a senior advisor from BEIS.
He was keen to understand employers’ concerns in relation to the enforcement of NMW. It became clear, during the session, that many of the concerns that BUFDG members have expressed around such things as salary sacrifice, accommodation and the interpretation of salaried hours are echoed by others. One point that many made was the reason why employers offer, and employees choose salary sacrifice arrangements. It was not necessarily for the potential savings in tax and/or NIC that may be available, but rather the flexibility and work/life balance that these arrangements bring. There were a number of examples cited, such as workplace nurseries, buying annual leave, cycle to work schemes and gym membership, where employees valued these arrangements for the benefits it provided rather than the savings.
It was suggested there may be new NMW legislation later this year, but this is subject to time being available for new powers to be introduced, given the vagaries of Brexit.
There is still time to respond to the consultation directly or to feed your comments to Caroline who will include them in BUFDG’s response.
A final reminder of the current rates of NMW and the new rates, which will come into force from April 2019:
Year | 25 and over | 21 to 24 | 18 to 20 | Under 18 | Apprentice |
April 2018 (current rate) | £7.83 | £7.38 | £5.90 | £4.20 | £3.70 |
April 2019 | £8.21 | £7.70 | £6.15 | £4.35 | £3.90 |
