Payslips: what the law requires on them.

• Employees and workers must get a payslip from their first payday.
• Not everyone: contractors and freelancers don’t, and nor do the police service, merchant seamen or share-fishing crew. Agency workers get theirs from the agency.
• On or before payday. The law says at or before the time the pay is made. Acas suggests giving them before payday, so mistakes can be put right in time.
• Paper or electronic is the employer’s choice. If someone can’t open their payslips online, Acas says to give them another way.

Section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 calls it an itemised pay statement. It must show:

• the gross amount of pay, before deductions;
• each variable deduction, such as tax and National Insurance, with its amount and what it is for;
• fixed deductions, either the same way or as one total backed by a standing statement (below);
• the net amount, after deductions;
• where pay is split and paid in different ways, the amount and method of each part;
• where pay varies with the time worked, the hours.

Since 6 April 2019, a payslip must show the total hours worked when pay varies with time worked. It can be one total, or separate figures for different kinds of work or different rates of pay: for example, the hours paid at the basic rate and the hours paid at the overtime rate.

Acas gives the common case: for someone on fixed salaried hours plus overtime, the fixed hours needn’t be listed, but the overtime hours must be, and the pay for both shown.

A fixed deduction, such as repaying a season ticket loan, can appear on the payslip as part of one total if you have given the person a standing statement of fixed deductions. Under section 9, that statement:

• is in writing, and gives each deduction’s amount, how often it is made and what it is for;
• is changed by written notice to the person when a deduction is added, changed or stopped;
• lasts 12 months, so it must be given again in full at least every 12 months, with any changes included.

GOV.UK says to send it before the first payslip and update it every year. Without one, each fixed deduction has to be listed on every payslip like any other.

Acas suggests the person asks their manager or payroll team first, then raises a grievance, and can then claim at an employment tribunal.

If the tribunal finds no payslip was given, or one left out what it had to show, it says so. If it also finds deductions that were never shown on a payslip or standing statement in the 13 weeks before the claim, it can order the employer to pay up to the total of them, even where the deductions were allowed by the contract.

GOV.UK reminds staff that they are responsible for checking they pay the right amount of tax, and that if it looks wrong, their tax code may be. A clear payslip makes that easy to check.

Acas also says employers must keep a record of hours worked and payments made for the last six years.