April 2023 employment law changes: Four tasks for HR

HR professionals must ensure that their organisation is on top of the raft of employment law developments in April 2023. These changes include rises in national minimum wage rates, gender pay gap reporting deadlines, and increases to statutory redundancy pay and maternity pay.

30 March / 4 April: Publish your gender pay gap report

Legal timetable

XpertHR's legal timetable provides summaries of pending employment laws and regulations, with implementation dates.

Organisations have 12 months to publish their gender pay gap figures from the relevant snapshot date - 31 March for the public sector and 5 April for the private and voluntary sectors.

This means that the gender pay gap reporting deadline is 30 March 2023 for public-sector employers and 4 April 2023 for private-sector and voluntary-sector employers.

Organisations must publish reports on their website and on the gender pay gap reporting portal on the GOV.UK website.

Employers can choose to provide a narrative around any gender pay gap, including providing an explanation for their pay gap and setting out what steps they are taking to reduce the gap.

1 April: Comply with national minimum wage rises

The rates of the national minimum wage increase on 1 April 2023. The hourly rates of the minimum wage increase from:

  • £9.50 to £10.42 for workers aged 23 and over - the national living wage (an increase of 9.7%);
  • £9.18 to £10.18 for workers aged 21 or 22 (an increase of 10.9%);
  • £6.83 to £7.49 for workers aged 18 to 20 (an increase of 9.7%);
  • £4.81 to £5.28 for workers aged under 18 who are no longer of compulsory school age (an increase of 9.7%); and
  • £4.81 to £5.28 for apprentices under 19, or over 19 and in the first year of the apprenticeship (an increase of 9.7%).

Employers should check their pay rates against the new minimum wage rates and ensure that, where necessary, they increase remuneration for the first pay reference period beginning on or after 1 April 2023.

The weekly rates of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental and parental bereavement pay increase to £172.48, up from £156.66. The increases take effect on the first Sunday in April, which in 2023 is 2 April.

The weekly rate of statutory sick pay also rises on 6 April 2023. The new rate is £109.40, up from £99.35.

It is up to HR to make sure that staff on maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement leave, and staff on sick leave, are paid these statutory minimum rates.

HR professionals also need to review their Policies and procedures that mention the rates, such as their maternity policies and sickness absence procedures.

6 April: Update your statutory redundancy pay calculations

What else is happening?

Employment tribunal award limits increase (6 April 2023)

State pension rates increase (10 April 2023)

New limits on employment statutory redundancy pay come into force on 6 April 2023.

Employers that dismiss employees for redundancy must pay those with two years' service an amount based on the employee's weekly pay, length of service and age.

The weekly pay is subject to a maximum amount, which is £643 from 6 April 2023 (increasing from £571).

HR professionals should ensure that calculations for statutory redundancy payments are made on the basis of this new maximum amount for redundancy dismissals on or after 6 April 2023.