National Minimum Wage check

There is a minimum amount you should pay most of your employees. This is National Minimum Wage.

You can use Sage Payroll to check you are not paying below this amount.

This article explains what National Minimum Wage is and how Sage Payroll can check it for you.

Sage Payroll now performs a National Minimum Wage check in your pay run. It checks if your hourly payments meet legislation for the National Minimum Wage.

Sage Payroll warns you if this is not the case.

The National Living Wage is higher than the National Minimum Wage. Your employees get this if they're 23 and over.

 NOTE: It doesn't matter how small your company is. You still have to pay the correct minimum wage. 

The current rates (from 1 April 2023) for the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are:

To see how the National Minimum Wage affects your business, see the HMRC article. The National Minimum Wage and Living Wage. (opens in new tab).

National Minimum Wage check

Sage Payroll now performs a National Minimum Wage check when you run your payroll. The check shows if your hourly payments meet legislation for the National Minimum Wage.

Payroll warns you if your employee's hourly payments don't meet National Minimum Wage

 NOTE: The check only applies to hourly payments, not deductions. 

You can check your hourly pay rates are correct and change them if necessary.

If you need help to process your pay run, read our processing a pay run article.

Employee Minimum Wage Rates

You may want to know which Minimum Wage band your employees are in, and what their rate per hour should be.

The Employee Minimum Wage Rates report gives you that information.

To run the report, select the Reporting drop-down menu. Select Employee Minimum Wage Rates.

 NOTE: If there is no value in the rate per hour column, you have entered an incorrect date of birth. For example, the employee start date, which means the employee is too young to qualify.