Hire in the United Kingdom through Teamed's own London entity.

Where does the extra 25% go? Employer National Insurance runs at 15% on earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold (frozen until 2030-31). Pension auto-enrolment adds 3% on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. Statutory sick, parental, and bereavement leave sit on top. Teamed's UK fee, £479 per employee per month flat, sits inside that 120-125% envelope, not outside it.

Teamed's UK price is one number: £479 per employee per month, flat. Zero FX in any currency pairing. No setup fees. No exit fees. Salaries, taxes, and benefits passed through at cost on every invoice.

The cost calculator below models your UK total employment cost against current statutory rates.

Setting up a UK limited company takes roughly 6 weeks and £3,000 to £15,000 in formation costs depending on share structure, with £3,200 to £4,500 per month of ongoing payroll, accounting, and statutory filings once it's live. An Employer of Record is faster and cheaper at low headcount, and Teamed runs UK payroll, contracts, and benefits the day you sign.

The crossover point is country-specific. For the United Kingdom at average tech salaries it lands around 5-8 employees. At that headcount your own entity's total employment cost crosses below the EOR fee plus 15% NIC plus pension on the same gross salary.

Most EOR providers won't tell you when you've crossed it. We do, and we'll help you move. You progress from Contractor to EOR to entity on one platform under Teamed's Graduation Model, with tenure preserved, no re-onboarding, and the same UK specialist on both sides.

Working hours and overtime

UK working time is governed by the Working Time Regulations 1998. The statutory maximum is 48 hours per week averaged over a 17-week reference period. Employees can voluntarily opt out of the 48-hour limit, and that opt-out is included in Teamed's standard UK contract. Standard rest entitlements: a 20-minute break if working over 6 hours, 11 hours' rest between workdays, and 24 hours' weekly rest (or 48 hours per fortnight). No statutory overtime premium. Premium pay is contractual, not legal.

Employment contracts

Written terms of employment must be issued on or before day one under the Employment Rights Act 1996 Section 1 statement. Fixed-term contracts run alongside permanent and zero-hour models, with one important constraint: an employee on continuous fixed-term contracts for 4 years or more automatically becomes permanent unless there's an objective business reason otherwise. Teamed's standard UK contract supports all three engagement types and signs on behalf of Teamed Ltd as the legal employer. You receive a fresh Section 1 statement during onboarding, audited against the latest ERA requirements.

Probation period

There is no statutory maximum probation period in the UK as of May 2026. Typical probations run 3 to 6 months, defined in the employment contract. The government is consulting on a 9-month statutory cap, with implementation proposed for autumn 2026. Even during probation, terminations should follow a fair procedure. Hold a probation review meeting before serving notice. Teamed's UK ops handles this end to end. During the review, you receive written documentation of performance discussions, agreed objectives, and the basis for any extension or dismissal.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property created by an employee in the course of employment is automatically owned by the employer under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Patents Act 1977. No special clause is needed for default IP assignment, though Teamed's UK contract includes explicit assignment language to cover edge cases: work created on personal time using company resources, third-party deliverables, and similar. Consultants and contractors require explicit written assignment. UK default ownership does not extend to non-employees. Moral rights are waivable in writing, and the UK contract waives them by default for commissioned work.

Annual leave

UK statutory annual leave is 5.6 weeks per year (28 days for a standard 5-day worker). Unique to the UK among Teamed countries: annual leave and bank holidays are bundled into the 28-day statutory minimum. Employers can count public holidays toward statutory leave or grant them separately. Carry-over of the EU-origin 4 weeks is permitted only where sickness or statutory leave prevented use, with 18 months to take. The additional 1.6 weeks of UK-origin leave cannot be carried over without written agreement.

Sick leave

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) rose to £123.25 per week from 6 April 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 abolished the 3 waiting days and removed the lower earnings limit. SSP now pays from day one and is available to all employees regardless of earnings level. SSP duration is up to 28 weeks per period of incapacity. Employer enhanced sick pay is contractual, not statutory. Employees self-certify for the first 7 days; a doctor's fit note is required from day 8.

Parental leave

From 6 April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared Parental, and Parental Bereavement Pay all rose to £194.32 per week (or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower). Maternity leave is up to 52 weeks (26 weeks paid). The Bereaved Partners Paternity Leave Regulations 2026 introduced up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave for partners where a mother or primary adopter dies. Mothers can take up to 10 Keeping In Touch (KIT) days during maternity leave without ending the leave period.

Public holidays

Public holidays in 2026: 8 in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland (includes 2 January and 30 November), 10 in Northern Ireland (includes St Patrick's Day and Battle of the Boyne). No legal requirement for enhanced bank-holiday pay. Time-and-a-half or double time is contractual. Most UK employers count bank holidays toward the 28-day statutory leave entitlement; Teamed's standard UK contract follows that convention. When a bank holiday falls on a weekend, a substitute weekday holiday is granted in lieu, typically the following Monday.

Employer tax

UK employers pay Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) at 15% on earnings above the secondary threshold of £5,000 per year (frozen until 2030-31). The Employment Allowance lets eligible employers offset up to £10,500 of their annual Class 1 NIC bill, with the £100,000 eligibility cap removed. Employers with a pay bill above £3 million pay the Apprenticeship Levy at 0.5% above a £15,000 allowance. Class 1A (on benefits in kind reported via P11D) and Class 1B (on PSAs) also run at 15%.

Pension auto-enrolment is mandatory: 3% employer minimum plus 5% employee minimum on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. You see PAYE filings, RTI submissions, and employer NIC reconciliations itemised on every invoice. Salary, NIC, pension, statutory recoveries, and the Teamed fee appear as separate lines.

Individual tax

UK income tax bands for 2025-26 (frozen): 0% to the £12,570 personal allowance, 20% basic rate to £50,270, 40% higher rate to £125,140, 45% additional rate above. The personal allowance tapers by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000.

Employees pay Class 1 NICs at 8% between the primary threshold (£12,570) and upper earnings limit (£50,270), and 2% above. Student loan and graduate-tax deductions apply where the employee has registered loans. Teamed PAYE handles all employee deductions, processes P45 documents on starters and leavers, and issues annual P60s. Cross-border employees with UK shadow payroll obligations are handled case by case (typical trigger: 183 days physical presence under double-tax treaty rules plus economic-employer analysis).

UK termination follows fair procedure under the Employment Rights Act 1996. Notice scales with continuous service: none under 1 month, 1 week between 1 month and 2 years, 1 week per year of service between 2 and 12 years, capped at 12 weeks at 12+ years' service.

Redundancy pay applies after 2 years' continuous service: 0.5 week's pay per year under age 22, 1 week per year age 22 to 40, 1.5 weeks per year age 41 and above. Capped at 20 years' service, with the weekly pay cap at £751 from 6 April 2026. Lifetime statutory redundancy pay maxes at £22,530. Redundancy payments are tax-free up to £30,000 in 2026.

From January 2027, the unfair-dismissal qualifying period drops from 2 years to 6 months under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Not day-one as widely reported. The same Act doubled the collective redundancy protective award from 90 to 180 days' full pay per affected employee from April 2026. Teamed's UK ops runs the full process: consultation period (15 days minimum for redundancy), fair-procedure documentation, holiday reconciliation, and final-pay calculation.

Annual leave and bank holidays are bundled into the 28-day statutory minimum. The UK is the only Teamed country where these aren't separate counts. Brief US buyers up front. Most expect "PTO plus holidays" and read the contract twice.

IR35 makes the engager (not the contractor) liable for getting tax classification right on UK contractors engaged via their own limited companies. The wrong call costs back-tax, employer NIC, and penalties for up to 6 tax years. Teamed Guard and Teamed Protect are purpose-built for this, Guard layers misclassification cover on top of contractors you engage directly; Protect transfers the liability to Teamed by routing the engagement through us.