Employment Law Update – Key rates and compensation increases for 2024/25

Any business employing staff should be aware of the imminent changes to statutory rates and compensation limits. To help your business stay on top of these changes and ensure legal compliance, we set out below some of the key dates to be aware of.

Unsurprisingly, the statutory rates have risen significantly to reflect the rate of inflation.

30 March 2024

• Public sector organisations with 250+ employees must submit by today their Gender Pay Gap Reports on the Government Gender Pay Gap reporting service website.

1 April 2024

• We have covered the changes to National Minimum Wage in full detail here.
• Apprentice rate for eligible people under 19 or those over 19 in their first year of apprenticeship: £6.40

4 April 2024

• Private and voluntary sector organisations with 250+ employees must submit by today their Gender Pay Gap Reports on the Government Gender Pay Gap reporting service website.

6 April 2024

• Maximum week’s pay for calculating redundancy and unfair dismissal basic award: £700.
• Cap on statutory redundancy payment and basic award for unfair dismissal: £21,000
• Minimum basic award for some forms of unfair dismissal: £8,533.
• Maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal: £115,115 (or capped by a year’s gross pay, whichever is lower).
• Statutory sick pay: £116.75 per week
• Statutory guarantee pay: £38 per day.

7 April 2024

• Maternity, paternity, adoption, parental bereavement pay and shared parental pay: £184.03 per week

Vento Bands:

For claims presented on or after 6 April 2024, the revised compensation bands for injury to feelings in discrimination cases are:

• Lower band (less serious cases): £1,200 – £11,700
• Middle band (for cases that do not merit an award in the upper): £11,700 – £35,200.
• Upper band (for the most serious cases): £35,200 – £58,700.
• Exceptional cases may be awarded in excess of £58,700.

Next steps

As Employers, you should be updating your processes, procedures, and internal documents (such as Staff Handbooks) to reflect these changes. You should also ensure that when you are analysing costs to the business for potential redundancies or tribunal claims from April, that you apply the new rates above.

Our Employment Team can assist you with ensuring your contracts, policies and procedures are legally compliant.

For further information or advice on any employment law matter, please contact Louise Brenlund or Hope Flashman-Wells

Warners Solicitors has offices in Sevenoaks and Tonbridge, Kent.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.