A Glossary of Holiday Entitlement, Minimum Wage, Sick Pay, Pay and Time off work for Parents Terms
Statutory Holiday Pay
As of April 2009 most UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of holiday per year (or 28 days based on a 5 day week) this is inclusive of bank holidays. A part-time worker, a fixed term worker or a worker in the first year of employment, will be entitled to paid holiday. There is no maximum age limit for qualifying for paid holidays. A child under school leaving age is not entitled to paid holidays. For further details of eligibility please see the following link: https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights
There are some groups of workers who are not entitled to paid holidays. For a member of the armed forces, police, or civil protection services, the law does not automatically give a person the right to paid holiday. In such cases reference needs to be made to the contract of employment for rights to holiday and holiday pay.
National Minimum Wage
Workers in the UK aged 16 (and above school leaving age) or over are now legally entitled to a national minimum hourly wage, regardless of where they work, the size of the firm or the worker’s occupation. This includes casual labourers, agency workers, home workers, workers on short-term contracts and workers employed by subcontractors.
There are some workers who are not covered by the national minimum wage. These include workers aged under 16, certain apprentices, nannies & au pairs where they work and they share meals with the family and they do not have to pay towards their accommodation costs or meals, genuinely self-employed people.
The National Minimum Wage generally increases each year, a link to current and historical rates is below: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
Statutory Sick Pay
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is paid by employers to employees who are off work sick for at least 4 consecutive days. The employee will need to have earned on average above the Lower Earnings Limit and have done some paid work for their employer as an employee. Please see link below for further information: https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
This is a legal entitlement to a certain amount of pay to help a mother take time off around the time of birth and lasts for up to 39 weeks. A further unpaid period of 13 weeks is allowed as time off work. An employee must be eligible for SMP and provide the correct notice to their employer. During the full 52 weeks maternity leave the employee continues to accrue holiday entitlement, they can then request with the employer to add this on to the end of their maternity leave. Please see the following link for further details: https://www.gov.uk/employers-maternity-pay-leave
Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)
Like SMP this is an entitlement to help an employee take time off when their child is born or adopted, the entitlement is for 1 or 2 consecutive weeks leave. The full details of eligibility and entitlement are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/employers-paternity-pay-leave
Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)
Employees may be eligible to Shared Parental Leave and Pay if they have had a baby or adopted a child. ShPP involves them sharing the remaining 37 weeks maternity pay following the mother’s compulsory 2 weeks leave after the baby’s birth. The leave and pay can be split into a maximum of 3 separate blocks per employee. For further details, eligibility and entitlement please see the following link: https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay-employer-guide
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