Recruiting new staff can be difficult, especially if you aren’t able to offer a substantial financial package to attract potential applicants. Often, the nature of working with horses means that jobs involve long or unsociable hours and this may mean that you start to consider what benefits and ‘perks’ you can offer to ‘sweeten the deal’. Claire Duffin from Equestrian Employers helps us understand a little better the do’s and don’ts of ’employment perks’.
Common benefits or perks offered with equestrian jobs include livery for your new employee’s horse, accommodation, or training. Whilst these are nice things to be able to offer, there are a number of legalities that must be considered before you advertise your new position.
If you are providing accommodation this can be taken into account when you calculate your new employee’s pay based on the National Minimum Wage. Employees must be paid at least the NMW for their age. For more information on this please see EEA Focus: Are You Paying the New National Minimum Wage? | Livery List Hub (yardownerhub.co.uk)
The government accommodation offset allowance means that the maximum that can be deducted from an employee’s wages to cover the cost of their accommodation is £69.93 per week.
You can decide to charge more than the offset rate, however, you should bear in mind that the higher the accommodation charge, the lower your employee’s pay will be when calculating the minimum wage.
If you provide free accommodation, it still affects the minimum wage. The offset rate for free accommodation is £9.99 per day.
It is also important to note that it is not legal to deduct food bills or any other living expenses from an employee’s pay.
Similarly, you cannot legally deduct any expenses relating to an employee’s horse from their wages. Any livery which you offer for an employee’s own horse must be agreed upon separately.
If your employee has an equine kept on your yard, this must be by separate livery arrangement. The same applies to any coaching or training or other equine related costs – these cannot be deducted from their wage and must be a separate entity. However, there are no restrictions in giving them a discounted rate if this is kept separate from their employment.
The once commonly used term ‘working pupil’ is now outdated. Yards can take on apprentices, but these must be through certified providers such as Haddon Training, and they must be paid at least the national minimum apprentice wage.
For employers, apprentices are an excellent way to develop staff skills and add value to your business. Apprenticeships are suitable for people at any level so you can hire someone new or upskill an existing employee.
If you employ an apprentice it will be your responsibility to provide the vocational training and support on a day-to day basis in line with a training plan which is mutually agreed between you and your training provider.
The government will pay 100% of the costs of the Apprenticeship training in most cases. There are often incentive payments available to help businesses offer new apprenticeships.
Since April 2017, it’s compulsory that all eligible employees receive a Workplace Pension as part of their employment contract, and this applies to those working in the equine industry.
A Workplace Pension scheme helps employees save for their retirement through contributions deducted directly from their wages. So this is not a ‘perk’, but a legal obligation for employers, and if an employee is eligible for automatic enrolment, their employer has to enrol them into the scheme.
The Equestrian Employers can also help you be compliant with pension requirements using their EEA Pension & Payroll service.
There is a lot to consider when it comes to employing staff, so why not join the Equestrian Employers Association (EEA which was created to support employers and promote good employment practices within our industry?
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