This year the NCB wage survey was back, we had over 130 responses from England & Wales. Thank you to every that took the couple of minutes to complete our survey.
We’re sharing the highlights with you here, but our Full members can find more details and breakdowns for regions and type of location in the Employment section of our Members area.
Workplace Pension
Offering a workplace pension became a legal requirement for all businesses several years ago and 99% of respondents are offering the minimum Employer contribution of 3%. 1% however are offering their employees enhanced pension contributions of 5%. The average employer contribution in the UK is 4.5%. (Profile Pensions)
Annual Leave
All employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday, (20 days plus 8 bank holidays, pro rata for part time), 10% of respondents are offering staff more than that either as standard or as part of long-term service recognition. The private sector and larger retail companies often offer up to 30 days plus bank holidays for long term employees.
Sick Pay
Whilst there is no legal entitlement to Sick pay above SSP, 25% of respondents are offering Discretionary company sick pay. Often tied to long service with staff accruing more sick pay the longer they are with the company.
Benefits
Another valuable part of what you have to offer are the employee benefits, not just the purview of large businesses there are many ways to add to what you can offer employees.
Other benefits included Staff Lunch, Bonus schemes, Profit sharing, Bike to work schemes and product development incentives all of which are much more accessible to small businesses.
Sources