New PAYE figures show retail and wholesale lost 57,000 payrolled employees over the past year, while overall pay growth softened. For smaller firms, that points to a labour market that is loosening in places but still awkward on costs.
HMRC’s latest Employer Bulletin flags a cluster of issues that matter to smaller employers now, from P11D deadlines and payroll IDs to higher Small Employers’ Relief and sick pay changes.
HMRC has published its official employer rates and thresholds for the 2026-27 tax year, and while none of this will make a small employer leap for joy, it does matter if you run payroll, pay…
Northern Ireland has become the first part of the UK to introduce paid leave after miscarriage at any stage of pregnancy. For small employers, the immediate issue is not politics but policy: knowing who is covered, what pay applies and how to handle a deeply sensitive situation well.
HMRC has updated its employee National Insurance and Income Tax calculators for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. For small employers, the useful point is not the calculators themselves but the reminder to check payroll settings, test deductions and spot mistakes before they turn into avoidable pay problems.
A new government-backed push to keep more people in work is gathering pace across the UK, and small employers should pay attention even if the first wave is full of big names. The latest update…
Weekend jobs used to be a fairly normal way into work for teenagers. For many small firms, they were also a useful way to cover busy shifts, build a future staff pipeline and bring in…
Hundreds of employers across the UK have been named for failing to pay the legal minimum wage, in a fresh government enforcement round that small business owners should treat as a timely reminder rather than…
A new level 4 AI and automation apprenticeship is open to employers across the UK. For small businesses, the opportunity is not just hiring talent but fixing repetitive admin, joining up systems and building AI capability without jumping straight into expensive software projects.
Small employers across the UK have been handed a new reason to look again at apprenticeships and entry-level hiring. The government says a fresh £1 billion youth employment package will help unlock 200,000 jobs and…