Trade body UKHospitality (UKH) has released tools to help the public and MPs understand the impact NICs will have on lower earners in small and large businesses next April.
These include a template letter and a data map, setting out the effect of the hospitality sector in each region across Great Britain alongside a video, which highlights the scale of the issue.
According to research from the trade body, NICs increases will hit the on-trade hardest with a 10% rise in the cost of employment per person.
Industry warning
It also stated while a person earning £150,000 may lose 20% of their pay rise next year because of the change, a person earning £25,000 will lose as much as 45%.
Last month (November), UKH spearheaded a letter, which was signed by more than 200 industry leaders, warning the rise in employment costs will cause ‘unprecedented damage’ to the sector.
The trade organisation suggested two measures to mitigate the impact - create a new employer NICs band from £5,000 to £9,000 with a lower rate of 5%.
Alternatively, it suggested the Government implement an exemption for lower band taxpayers working fewer than 20 hours a week, targeting support for part-time and lower paid workers.
Unbearable pressure
Also last month, UKH warned increased NICs will “immediately impact” employment more than changes to the Employment Rights Bill.
UKH chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “At the Budget in October, the Government delivered an increase of £3.4bn to the sector’s 2025 annual tax bill.
“This will put businesses under unbearable pressure and will inevitably hit lower earners hardest.
“The more pressure we can put on the Government to understand the devastating impact of these measures on hospitality, the more chance we have of getting changes.
“That is why we are releasing this simple explainer video and encouraging all operators to use the tools on our website to write to their MP to spell out the scale of the damage if nothing changes.”
