This article will explain how you can adjust the pay rates in PARiM due to the United Kingdom's National Minimum/Living Wage (NMW/NLW) increase:
1. When is it necessary to adjust the pay rates in PARiM due to the NMW/NLW increase?
The NMW/NLW increase occurs on the 1st of April each year. If you have any employees whose pay is dependent on the NMW/NLW, you have to update their pay rates in PARiM as well. You can change the pay rates in PARiM at any time - preferably before the 1st of April, although you can do it at a later time as well.
Note that if you also have to adjust the charge rates due to the NMW/NLW increase, you can still apply the instructions from this article (but go to "Pay & Charge" > "Charge rules" instead), as the mechanism of pay and charge rules is identical.
You can find the information about the 2024 increases on this UK government website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minimum-wage-rates-for-2024
2. How should I adjust the pay rates in PARiM?
Since even the historic shifts in PARiM are connected to your existing pay rules in real-time, you wouldn't generally want to update the pay rate of an existing pay rule, as it would change the pay rate of historic shifts as well.
Instead, PARiM allows you to set effective dates ("From" and "To") for each pay rule, so you could limit its application period.
If you already have a pay rule in PARiM and you would like to increase its pay rate from the 1st of April without affecting the shifts which took place before the 1st of April, please follow the steps below.
First, set an end date to the current pay rule:
Find the rule in "Pay & Charge" > "Pay rules" and click on it:
Click on "Edit" in the top-right corner:
Enter "31/03/2024" as the "to" date in the top-right corner:
Click on "Save & Apply" in the bottom-left corner:
Next, set up the new pay rule:
Click on the pay rule you've set an end date to:
Click on the down arrow next to "Edit" and select "Copy":
A copy of the previous rule will be opened, which you can rename:
Enter "01/04/2024" as the "from" date and delete or change the "to" date:
Update the pay rate:
Click on "Save & Apply":
If you now go to "Pay & Charge" > "Pay rules" and enable the "Starts in future" filter in the left sidebar, you will be able to see both pay rules:
3. Will the employees be notified of the new pay rates?
The employees don't get notified just because you create new pay rules, but they do get notified when their shifts' pay rates change. If you have already assigned any shifts to employees after the 1st of April and now create new pay rules for these shifts, the assignees will be notified of the changes (one message per shift).
You can disable these notifications if you don't want to send a large number of messages to your employees because of the pay rate changes. To do it, go to "System Settings" > "Notifications", click on "+" next to 'Notify "People" of any activity in their Schedule' and disable "Shift pay rate changed":
After you've created the new pay rules, you can re-enable this setting again.
4. How can I simplify the process for the future?
This paragraph is aimed at more experienced users who feel comfortable with managing employment types and pay rules in PARiM. If you're uncertain about these topics, feel free to contact our customer support for more specific guidance by clicking on the blue help bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page.
Additionally, the instructions below are most effective for users who are subscribed to the Premium or Enterprise plan, as they would have access to advanced pay rules, which will allow them to set different pay rates for different age ranges within a single pay rule. Professional plan users would have to create separate employment types for each age range and assign them to the employees accordingly.
If you have employees who get paid the NMW/NLW for all the shifts they work, you could create a specific employment type for them and create a pay rule just for that employment type.
First, create a new employment type:
To create a new employment type, go to "System Settings" > "People Settings" > "Employment Types" and click on "Add Employment Type" in the top-right corner:
When creating a new employment type, you have to specify the settings for its pay schedule, absence tracking and work & rest time rules. After you've configured all of these, make sure to click "Save" in the bottom-right corner:
To change people's employment types in bulk go to "People" > "Employees", select one or more employees, click on "With selected" and select "Change employment type":
This will end their current contracts and start new contracts under the new employment type.
You can read more about employment types in this help article: https://support.parim.co/en/articles/2794300-employment-types.
Next, set up a pay rule for the new employment type:
Go to "Pay & Charge" > "Pay rules" and click on "Create pay rule":
In the new pay rule window, click on "Applies to", unselect "Position" and select "Employment type" instead:
Enter the details for the new pay rule:
Enter the name for the pay rule
Enter the effective dates
Choose the correct employment type (the one you created earlier)
Click on "+ Add condition" and choose "Age range"
Enter the age ranges and pay rates for each range
Click on "Save & Apply"
Once you've created the new pay rule based on the employment type, it should generally take priority over other types of pay rules (except person-based pay rules) and start applying to the relevant shifts immediately.
However, you can double-check your environment's pay rule priority list if you go to "System Settings" > "Financials" > "Pay Rules Priority":
The rule types that are higher in the list than "Employment type" take priority over it and vice versa.
You can read more about the pay rule priority list in this help article: https://support.parim.co/en/articles/3752210-priority-list-for-pay-and-charge-rules.
5. Webinar recording: "How to update pay rules? Best practices"
We share the best ways to adjust pay rules without affecting historical pay data. At the beginning of the webinar, we also mention the National Minumum Wage increase in the UK, but the process of updating pay rules is universal.
Click here to watch the webinar recording.
If you have any questions or problems when adjusting the pay rates, please contact our customer support team by clicking on the blue help bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page.