{"id":27020,"date":"2025-08-14T15:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=27020"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:06:16","slug":"are-you-prepared-to-payroll-your-seasonal-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/are-you-prepared-to-payroll-your-seasonal-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you prepared to payroll your seasonal workers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Heather Bright, Partner<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The sun\u2019s out and if your business is gearing up for a summer surge, then you might be hiring some seasonal workers.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Before the tide of temporary hires rolls in, you need to make sure that you understand your payroll obligations.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What payroll pitfalls do seasonal workers bring?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Misclassifying short-term hires is one of the most common mistakes that inexperienced businesses make.<\/p>\n<p>Every seasonal worker needs a clear, time-limited contract detailing their dates, pay rate and employment status, just as you\u2019d do for full-time or part-time employees.<\/p>\n<p>All seasonal workers must receive at least the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/national-minimum-wage-rates\">National Living Wage (NLW) or the National Minimum Wage (NMW)<\/a>, depending on their age.<\/p>\n<p>The current rates are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a312.21 for people aged 21 and over<\/li>\n<li>\u00a310 for people aged 18 to 20<\/li>\n<li>\u00a37.55 for people aged under 18<\/li>\n<li>\u00a37.55 is the apprentice rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keeping an eye out for birthdays is something that a lot of employers don\u2019t consider.<\/p>\n<p>As the pay rates are determined by age, if your employee has their birthday while working for you, they may need to go onto a new rate of pay.<\/p>\n<p>This needs to happen on their birthday, so make sure you are not suddenly underpaying an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How can you keep payroll smooth and efficient?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Onboarding and offboarding need to be handled quickly and efficiently, as there is no time for delay.<\/p>\n<p>Get workers set up on your system before they start so that they do not end up doing any amount of unpaid work.<\/p>\n<p>When their contract ends, issue final payslips, holiday pay and P45s in the very next payroll run.<\/p>\n<p>Even a single missed deadline can land you with fines, so treat these wrap-up tasks as non-negotiable items on your to-do list.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Which records must you keep and for how long?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Contracts and agreements should be kept alongside payroll information for at least seven years.<\/p>\n<p>You never know when you\u2019ll need to dig up an old agreement for a tax audit or a benefits query.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unlikely, but if you have offered any perks such as travel allowances, staff discounts, or free lunches, then keep supporting documents relating to these benefits too.<\/p>\n<p>Being proactive with record\u2011keeping today saves you from a paperwork avalanche tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>Seasonal workers can be the lifeblood of your summer revenue, but they need to be managed appropriately to avoid becoming a headache.<\/p>\n<p>You treat them with the same respect you give your core team.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re here to help you factor in every employment cost and streamline your payroll processes, so you don\u2019t need to worry about becoming noncompliant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t let seasonal workers add to your summer stress. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/contact-us\/\"><strong>Speak to our team today<\/strong><\/a><strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Heather Bright, Partner The sun\u2019s out and if your business is gearing up for a summer surge, then you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/are-you-prepared-to-payroll-your-seasonal-workers\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Are you prepared to payroll your seasonal workers?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4,128,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-business","category-heather-bright","category-payroll"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27023,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27020\/revisions\/27023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}