Getting Payroll Right: National Minimum Wage Under the Microscope

Payroll teams, you’re just one salary sacrifice away from a problem you can’t see.

National Minimum Wage looks like the simplest calculation you run. One rate, one sum, done. Right? Right…

Then a worker sacrifices salary into their pension. Another does fifteen unpaid minutes cashing up after close. Nobody spots either until an inspector does.

Underpayment is rarely deliberate. It’s arithmetic spread across four systems, done by people with 101 other things to finish before Thursday. That’s exactly what investigations find. And in 2026 with the Fair Work Agency holding new inspection powers there are now more eyes on it than ever. 

That’s why this National Payroll Week, we’re putting National Minimum Wage under the microscope with the experts who see it go wrong and fix it, for a living. (One of our speakers used to investigate it for HMRC!)

You’ll leave knowing exactly where your own exposure sits, and the four checks to run before your next pay run. 

Free to attend. 45 minutes, plus a live Q&A where nothing’s off the table.

Why you can’t miss this

Get National Minimum Wage wrong and you’re looking at arrears for every affected worker, a financial penalty on top, and the possibility of appearing on a public naming list. Get it right and you never need to think about it again.

• The enforcement view, introducing Jeni Morris: Jeni spent years as an HMRC national minimum wage investigator. She’ll explain what an investigation actually looks for and which records get requested first.
• The four failure points: Deductions, unpaid working time, salary sacrifice and holiday pay, and how to spot each one in your own payroll.
• What changed in 2026: The Fair Work Agency’s inspection powers, and why accurate hours records still matter after HMRC dropped its plan to collect them through RTI.
• The bureau lens: How the risk differs across a client book versus a single in-house payroll, and the standardised checks that catch problems before they reach a payslip.
• The technology gap: How the right payroll technology closes the gap between good intentions and actual compliance and what to look for if yours doesn’t.
• An open Q&A: Ask about that messy real-world scenario you’ve never been sure about.

Join us and you’ll leave with a clear view of where your own exposure sits, and the specific checks to run on your next pay run.

Is this for you?

If you sign off a pay run, you should join this session.

Business owners and finance managers running payroll themselves. In-house payroll and HR teams. Payroll bureaus, accountants and managed service providers handling National Minimum Wage across a client book—this is for you.

Your panel

Jeni Morris: Co-founder, Fair Work Solutions and a former HMRC national minimum wage investigator. With years on the enforcement side, Jeni brings real-world cases and advises where employers get caught out, drawing on her HMRC investigator background.

Phil Harbage: Having led countless implementations for businesses big and small, Phil will cover how automated, rules-based payroll removes manual error, and builds in compliance by default. And where the AI Payroll Agent (powered by Hero AI) keeps the audit trail intact without the chasing.

James Proctor: Chief Commercial Officer at Phase 3, independent specialists in HR, payroll and finance technology. With nearly two decades spent selecting, implementing and reviewing people systems for client organisations, James brings the view from across the market. 

Nicola Denison: Principal Consultant of Managed Services at Phase 3, independent specialists in HR, payroll and finance technology. With over a decade of expertise in managing end-to-end payroll operations within the tech sector. 

Sarah Sharpe: Payroll Ninjas, moderating. Bringing the questions the Payroll Ninjas community are actually asking right now, and keeping the conversation grounded in real practitioner concerns.

Free · Live Q&A · Recording sent to everyone who registers

Can’t make Friday morning? Register anyway and we will send you the recording.