Issue with pay rise.

[AishD]

Hi,
I'm new here, so I'm unsure if I'm doing this correctly.

In January, I received a pay raise, and my employer increased my wage to £11.30/hr, which exceeded the previous year's National Minimum Wage (NMW).

With the new NMW set at £11.44/hr, I expected my wage to remain consistent with the earlier increase. However, I've been reverted back to the current NMW rate. Despite being a senior laboratory analyst and performing supervisory duties, my pay is now equivalent to that of new employees.

I sought clarification from my employer, and their response was: "You have been raised to £11.44 as this is the greater of the two amounts."

Are they allowed to do that ? Whats the point of increasing my wage in January when I would have anyways got new NMW in April.

Welcome to MN! I'm sorry, but I'm not 100% sure what you are asking?
They increased you to £11.30 in Jan and now to £11.44/hr. What rate were you expecting to move to now?
Maybe your work wasn't aware the government would increase NMW now.
If you aren't in a union then ACAS can help, but hopefully someone with more knowledge of this comes along to help you.

This winds me up no end but some employers still do it. I’d been in my previous job 9 years and every year got a pay rise to the NMW, meaning my experience in the job and the work I did meant nothing because a new person could start a week later and be on the same hourly rate as me by default, despite needing full training. It’s frustrating but I’m not sure there’s much you can do.

You're upset they're paying you 11.44 not 11.30???

It sounds like you are being undervalued, I'd look around and see what others are paying for the same job description

No, she's upset she was being paid around NMW+8% and is now only being paid NMW.

It's crap OP but if companies were forced to give such payrises to all staff there would be mass unemployment- the increase to NMW this year was significant mostly because it pushes more people into a tax paying pay bracket thanks to frozen income tax thresholds

I see what you mean. So I'm grade 5 in a council, when the minimum wage goes up my wage goes up as my work is classed to have responsibilities that put it about minimum wage. So I earn (slightly) more than nmw staff.

It's unfair because your employer considered your job to be above minimum wage but now has decided to pay minimum wage to save money. The point of the wage going up is to reflect living costs so essentially you have had a pay cut.

I'd be annoyed but unless there's a job description that states your post is above minimum wage for xyz reason I'm not sure there's much you can do.

Yes they can do that - however, you don't have a to stay and accept it

Of course they can do it. If you think that doesn’t reflect the market rate for your skills and experience then you can get another job which pays more. Employers simply can’t afford to maintain differentials given NMW had increased by 20% in the last 2 years

Yes. They are definitely allowed to do that. It seems your pay review happens at a different time to the increase in NMW. You can request a review now, if they had to hire for your job they’d likely advertise it for more as no supervisor would want to be on the same wage as subordinates.

Thanks everyone. I am just upset because higher ups delayed my payrise from september last year to January. Whats the point of doing yearly salary review in January when in April NMW goes up and you'll be back to having same wage as all junior analyst who I train with my manager.

When they implemented the pay rise, they acknowledged the extra work especially since my manager was newly appointed, and I essentially handled her responsibilities.

As a laboratory analyst, I'm currently working part-time until my daughter starts school (2027). I can't afford fulltime childcare thus I'm faced with the decision to either leave my profession and find another job until then or remain here with additional responsibilities.

It is annoying and even more so when they know they’ve got you over a barrel. I work in education and was given additional tasks in September to ‘help’ SLT negotiate a decent pay rise, which has so far not materialised. Pay reviews will be done this month to appear in Mays wages, backdated to cover April but obviously not back dated to September when the additional tasks were added to the role. I need to work where I am and moving jobs would be an absolute ball ache and they know this, so they can take full advantage. Sounds like you’re in a similar position.

I get you and no its not fair. My pay went up to £11 in February from minimum wage and then this month it has gone up to £12.06 to keep me proportionately above the pay of those staff on NMW. You should have received a similar increase. You've essentially been given a pay decrease.

I have a meeting with a someone above my manager who pushed to increase my pay in January. Hopefully they listen to me and sort my salary.
I don't want to be earning entry level position in a lab where I have been working for 3 years. Its a shame as I really love my work.

I guess they see it as you was really happy with your wage in January, so would be happy with NLW! The main issue here is because you need to get market rate, which is different. You need to get evidence of what pay you should be on.
If they aren't willing to do that, and no justification why/plan to get you higher then I wouldn't bother. I'd leave.

Basically, I've been informed that they are planning to implement a company-wide structure where people are no longer paid minimum wage. However, for now, all lab analysts across three different labs are stuck at minimum wage. That's just a plain lie.
I guess I have to find another job but finding a part time laboratory job is next to impossible.

It's crap isn't it? My last job I was on about £1 an hour over MW, when the rate went up last year, my wage didn't move up so I ended up being about 10p above. Just felt a bit rubbish and demoralising

yes! because she got a pay rise (probably merit or length of service based) and is now on min wage

Your job title sounds really technical - I'm amazed that you are hovering around min wage. It sounds like the sort of job you'd expect £35k minimum.

I suspect its not a lie, its just it will take them some time to figure out what they want to pay to the different levels, get it benchmarked, costed, approved. Shouldn't be your problem of course.

I might have trust issues, but they could easily drag this out for a couple of years. You've said yourself how hard to is to find a job doing similar, so risk of losing people is low - so there isn't a NEED to pay people more because it sounds like people don't really leave.

How much more money realistically do you want, and is it market rate? Long term is it the kind of salary you want to be on? Would you consider relocating? Would you consider promotions etc to get money up?