You've probably already budgeted for the National Minimum Wage rise in April. Most operators have. But there's another change landing on the same date that could cost you more - and almost nobody in hospitality is talking about it.

From 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay changes completely. And if you employ part-time staff - which in hospitality, is almost everyone - this one matters.

What's actually changing

Three things change at once on 6 April 2026:

1. SSP is payable from day one

The 3 waiting days are gone. Under the current rules, an employee who phones in sick on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday gets nothing. From April, they get SSP from day one.

2. The Lower Earnings Limit is removed

Currently, employees must earn at least £125 per week to qualify for SSP. If they earn less, they get nothing. From April, that threshold disappears entirely. Every employee is eligible, regardless of how little they earn.

3. The rate changes from flat to percentage-based

The current flat rate of £118.75 per week is replaced with a new formula: 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings, capped at £123.25 per week. For higher earners this barely changes anything. For lower earners - which is most of hospitality - it means a lower weekly rate but crucially, a rate they actually receive.

Why hospitality gets hit hardest

These changes affect every employer. But hospitality businesses are disproportionately exposed for three reasons.

Most of your team were previously ineligible. A barista working 12 hours a week at £12.71 per hour earns £152.52 per week - just above the old threshold. But a kitchen porter doing 8 hours at the same rate earns £101.68 per week. Under the old rules, that kitchen porter got nothing if they were sick. From April, they get SSP.

Short absences are common. In an office, people might push through a cold. In a kitchen or behind a coffee machine, you send people home - food safety demands it. With waiting days gone, every single-day absence now triggers SSP. If your team averages even two or three short absences per year each, the cumulative cost is real.

You have more part-time and variable-hours staff. The hospitality sector employs the highest proportion of part-time workers of any UK industry. The LEL removal was specifically designed to bring these workers into scope. That's good for your team. It's also a cost you need to plan for.

The numbers

Let's look at what this actually means for typical hospitality roles.

Part-time barista: 15 hours/week at £12.71/hr

Weekly earnings: £190.65
Old rules: Eligible (above £125 LEL), but 3 waiting days meant a week off sick cost SSP for only 2 days. Weekly SSP was flat £118.75 - so 2 payable days at £23.75/day = £47.50
New rules: 80% of £190.65 = £152.52, capped at £123.25/week. Daily rate: £24.65. Five sick days = £123.25
Difference: +£75.75 more per absence

Weekend kitchen porter: 10 hours/week at £12.71/hr

Weekly earnings: £127.10
Old rules: Earned £127.10 - just above the £125 LEL, so technically eligible. But only barely, and 3 waiting days wiped out most short absences. A 3-day absence cost you £0 in SSP.
New rules: 80% of £127.10 = £101.68/week. Daily rate for a 2-day worker: £50.84. Three sick days = £152.52
Difference: +£152.52 per absence

Zero-hours team member: 8 hours/week at £12.71/hr

Weekly earnings: £101.68
Old rules: Below the £125 LEL. Not eligible for SSP at all.
New rules: 80% of £101.68 = £81.34/week. They're now eligible from day one.
Difference: from nothing to full eligibility

The hidden cost: short absences

Under the old system, the 3 waiting days acted as a natural buffer. Most hospitality sickness absences are short - one or two days with a stomach bug, a bad cold, a minor injury. With 3 waiting days, these cost you nothing in SSP (though they still cost you in agency cover or short-staffing).

From April, every single-day absence triggers SSP. If you have a team of 10 and each person has two short absences per year, that's 20 SSP payments you weren't making before. At an average of £20-25 per day, that's £400-500 per year in new SSP costs alone - on top of whatever you're already spending on cover.

This isn't catastrophic. But it is money that wasn't in your budget, and it arrives at the same time as the NMW increase and the employer NI changes from April 2025 that are still working through the system.

The weekend worker problem

Here's the part that nobody is talking about yet. The new SSP formula creates a bizarre incentive gap between your full-time and part-time staff.

A full-time employee working 5 days a week at £12.71/hr earns £381.30/week. Their weekly SSP is capped at £123.25 (80% of £381.30 = £305.04, but the cap kicks in). That works out at £24.65 per sick day. It's money, but it's a significant pay cut - roughly 32% of their normal daily earnings.

Now look at a weekend worker doing one day a week - say an 8-hour Saturday shift at £12.71/hr. They earn £101.68/week. Their SSP is 80% of that: £81.34/week. They work one qualifying day, so their daily SSP rate is £81.34. For a single day's sickness, they receive 80% of their usual pay.

Read that again. Your weekend worker gets 80% of their normal earnings for calling in sick. Your full-timer gets about 32%.

The full-timer has a strong financial reason to come in. The weekend worker - who might just be a bit tired after a late Friday, or not feeling 100% but not genuinely ill - has almost no financial reason not to stay in bed. They lose 20% of one shift's pay. That's about £20.

Now multiply it out. Say you have 4 weekend staff and each has 4 sick days over the year. That's not excessive - it's not enough to trigger any disciplinary process. But it's 16 weekend shifts affected. At £81.34 per day in SSP, that's £1,301 in sick pay alone. On top of that, you're either paying for cover or running short-staffed on your busiest day of the week.

Under the old rules, those same 4 staff members would have received nothing - they were below the £125 LEL. The cost to you was zero in SSP (though you still had the operational headache). From April, it's a real line item.

This isn't about questioning whether people are genuinely ill. Most are. But the incentive structure has shifted, and in hospitality - where weekend shifts are already the hardest to fill and the most painful to lose - that shift matters.

What to do about it

This is manageable if you plan for it. Here's what to do before April.

Budget for it now. Don't wait until the first sick day lands. Estimate your team's likely absence days (the UK hospitality average is around 7 days per employee per year) and calculate the SSP cost using the new formula. Build it into your labour cost projections.

Review your absence patterns. If you don't track absence data, start. You need to know which roles and which times of year drive the most sickness. This helps you forecast and also identify any patterns worth addressing - whether that's kitchen ventilation, workload during peak periods, or just seasonal flu.

Understand the interaction with contractual sick pay. If you already pay contractual sick pay above SSP, the impact may be smaller - SSP is the minimum, not an additional cost on top. Check your contracts and handbook.

Consider your return-to-work process. With day-one SSP, there's a slight risk that very short absences increase. A simple, non-punitive return-to-work conversation helps you understand patterns without creating a culture where people come in sick - which in hospitality, you really don't want.

Get your hours data right. The new SSP calculation uses average weekly earnings, which means you need accurate records of what people actually work. If your rota system, timesheets, or POS clock-in data is patchy, now is the time to tighten it up. The AWE calculation typically looks at the 8 weeks before the absence started.

The bottom line

The April 2026 SSP changes are good for workers - particularly the lowest-paid, most vulnerable members of your team who previously got nothing when they were ill. That matters.

But for hospitality operators running tight margins with large part-time teams, it's a genuine cost increase that needs planning. The combination of day-one eligibility, no earnings threshold, and the removal of waiting days means your SSP bill will go up. By how much depends on your team size, your hours mix, and your absence rates.

The operators who'll handle this best are the ones who know their numbers before April arrives. Run the calculations, adjust your budgets, and make sure your absence tracking is solid.

How Brikly helps

This is exactly the kind of problem we built StaffBrik to solve. Rather than manually calculating SSP from hourly rates and guessing at absence patterns, StaffBrik handles it from real data:

Automatic SSP calculation from actual shift history - no manual AWE calculations, no guessing at qualifying days
SSP cost built into your rota budget so you see the true cost of absence alongside your planned labour spend
Bradford Factor scores that surface problematic absence patterns early - before they become expensive
Return-to-work checklists built into the absence flow, so every RTW conversation is consistent and documented
Automatic pattern spotting that flags trends you'd miss in a spreadsheet - Monday absences, post-holiday spikes, seasonal patterns by role

The April 2026 changes make absence management more expensive. StaffBrik makes it more visible.