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Staff aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year are enrolled, with at least 8% of qualifying earnings paid in. Casual staff are assessed every time they are paid.
All guidesEvery employer has workplace pension duties, starting on the day the first member of staff starts work. You must enrol, and pay an employer contribution for, every worker who:
When someone newly meets these conditions, because of a birthday or a rise in pay, you enrol them and write to them within 6 weeks. The thresholds for 2026/27 are the same as for 2025/26.
| Threshold, 2026/27 | Year | Month | Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic enrolment | £10,000 | £833 | £192 |
| Lower limit of qualifying earnings | £6,240 | £520 | £120 |
| Upper limit of qualifying earnings | £50,270 | £4,189 | £967 |
The lower limit for staff paid every four weeks is £480. Source: The Pensions Regulator.
Age changes eligibility as well as pay. A full-time kitchen assistant who turns 22 in the middle of a monthly pay period, earning more than £833 that month, becomes eligible in that pay period. You enrol them, start deductions from that payroll, and write to them within six weeks. Payroll software picks this up from the date of birth, so a missing or wrong date of birth means a missed enrolment.
All staff can ask to join your scheme, and you must put them in within one month of the request. Staff aged 16 to 21, staff between State Pension age and 74, and staff earning £833 a month or less are enrolled only if they ask. You do not have to pay an employer contribution for staff earning £520 a month, £120 a week or £480 over four weeks, or less.
The Pensions Regulator says that where someone aged 16 to 74 asks to join and earns over £120 a week (£520 a month), you pay into the scheme as well, from the beginning of the next pay period after their request. A 20-year-old on the floor team paid £900 a month who asks to join has £380 a month of qualifying earnings, so the employer pays at least £11.40 a month and the worker the rest of the 8%, £19.00.
Staff who earn £120 a week or less may not need to be on a PAYE scheme at all. The Pensions Regulator says you must still write to them about how automatic enrolment applies, and set up a pension for them if they ask. Once their pay goes above £120 a week you register them on PAYE and assess them.
The legal minimum since April 2019 is 8% of qualifying earnings, of which the employer pays at least 3% and the worker the rest. Under most schemes, qualifying earnings are the worker's earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year before tax, or the weekly and monthly equivalents in each pay period. Your scheme's rules say which pay counts.
For a team of ten full-time staff on those hours, the employer's 3% comes to about £5,563 a year. Some schemes work out contributions on basic pay or on all pay from the first pound, at higher rates, and your provider confirms which basis your scheme uses. Employer pension contributions are part of labour cost along with pay, holiday pay and employer National Insurance.
Hospitality rotas change week to week, so earnings are assessed each time staff are paid, against the threshold for that pay period. Earnings include overtime, bonus, commission, Statutory Sick Pay and statutory family pay as well as basic pay. Payroll software does the assessment if the dates of birth and pay periods are set up correctly.
Once a worker is enrolled, they stay in the scheme when their hours fall. Contributions rise and fall with pay. In a week when pay drops below £192 but stays above £120, contributions are still due on the band above £120. Below £120, none may be due, and the worker can stay in the scheme. Your provider confirms the scheme's own rules.
A worker whose pay passes £192 in a single week, after a run of short weeks, has to be assessed and enrolled in that pay period unless you are using postponement.
Postponement lets you delay assessing a worker for up to three months. It can start from your duties start date, from a worker's first day, or from the date a worker first meets the age and earnings conditions. You must write to the worker within six weeks of the date postponement starts. You do not tell The Pensions Regulator.
The Pensions Regulator suggests postponement for temporary or seasonal staff who will leave within three months. During postponement a worker can still ask to join, and you must enrol them once you have their request. Postponement cannot be used at re-enrolment.
Postponement can also start on the date a casual worker first meets the age and earnings conditions, such as the first week their pay goes over £192. That gives three months to see whether their hours settle above the threshold, with the same six-week letter. Each use of postponement needs its own letter, so keep a copy with the worker's payroll record.
A worker can leave the scheme at any time. If they ask to leave within one month of joining, which is the opt-out window, you refund their contributions within one month. After the window, their contributions stay in the pension until they retire. Keep each request to leave with the payroll records. An eligible worker who left the scheme more than 12 months before your next re-enrolment date is put back in on that date. One who left within the 12 months can be re-enrolled then or at the date three years later.
Contributions are deducted from pay each time you run payroll and paid to the provider by the date agreed with them. Contributions deducted in a month must reach the scheme by the 22nd of the next month, or the 19th if you pay by cheque. Missed payments have to be backdated, with the worker's share deducted as well as yours.
A new employer completes a declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator within 5 months after its duties start date. It covers who was enrolled and the scheme used, and the duty to complete it on time stays with the employer even if someone else does the work.
Your re-enrolment date is three years after your first member of staff started, and every three years after that. On that date you put back into the scheme eligible staff who left it more than 12 months earlier, and staff paying below the minimum contributions, write to them within six weeks, and complete a re-declaration of compliance, even if no one needed to be re-enrolled.
You must keep records of the names and addresses of staff enrolled, when contributions were paid, all requests to join or leave, and the scheme reference, for six years. Requests to leave are kept for four years. You also keep track of each worker's age and earnings so you can enrol them when they become eligible.
The Pensions Regulator can issue a compliance notice, then a fixed penalty of £400. If the breach continues it can issue an escalating penalty at a daily rate set by the number of staff:
| Number of staff | Daily rate of the escalating penalty |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | £50 |
| 5 to 49 | £500 |
| 50 to 249 | £2,500 |
| 250 to 499 | £5,000 |
| 500 or more | £10,000 |
Source: the Employers' Duties (Registration and Compliance) Regulations 2010, regulations 12 and 13.
We assess every worker in each pay period, send the enrolment and postponement letters, pay the contributions to the scheme you have chosen, and complete the declaration and re-declaration of compliance. Pension costs appear in your weekly labour figures. See payroll, tips and tronc.
£10,000 a year, which is £833 a month or £192 a week.
They are assessed each time they are paid. If they are aged 22 or over and earn more than the threshold for that pay period, they are enrolled unless you are using postponement.
Up to three months. You write to the worker within six weeks of the date postponement starts.
If they leave within one month of joining, you refund their contributions within one month.
£400. Escalating penalties follow at a daily rate from £50 to £10,000, set by the number of staff.
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