Minuimum wage updates and the effects on wholesale printing costs

Had a good hard think about this as it has been bothering me for a while. The answer is I am unsure; Undoubtably its going to cause additional pressure on our wholesle providers, but in the economic condition can they afford to respond! I guess, damned if they do and damned if they dont. Hopefully any recovery will make that decision easier. Anyway here are the facts

Employers are being reminded that 1 October sees increases in the hourly rates for the national minimum wage.The rate for workers aged 22 or over rises to 5.80 an hour; for workers aged 18 to 21 it rises to 4.83 an hour; and for workers aged below 18 who are no longer of compulsory school age it rises to 3.57 an hour.The daily accommodation offset, which is the amount per day that an employer may offset from the minimum wage when providing a worker with living accommodation, is to be 4.51.

There are changes, too, to the way that the minimum wage and tips and service charges are managed.

From 1 October, employers are not allowed to count service charges, cover charges, tips and gratuities paid to workers through the payroll as part of the minimum wage. Tips given directly to a worker by a customer will continue not to be included as part of the minimum wage. Also from 1 October, the redundancy payment rules are amended.

The limit on a weeks pay for the purposes of working out statutory redundancy payments increases from 350 to 380. The rise also affects employment tribunal awards calculated on the basis of a weeks pay.
Frank Golden
Plenty of print for everyone