Workplace pensions for restaurants and takeaways ​

From the day your first member of staff starts work, you have legal duties under automatic enrolment: work out who must be put into a pension, write to your staff, tell The Pensions Regulator how you have done it, and keep paying in. The duties do not end once the scheme is set up: if hours, pay and staff change from week to week, you check again every time you run payroll. This guide sets out what a restaurant, café, pub or takeaway must do, with the figures for the 2026/27 tax year.

When your duties start ​

Your duties start date is the day your first member of staff starts working for you. From then:

• On that date, work out each person’s age and earnings (“assessing your staff”).
• Within six weeks, write to every member of staff individually to explain how automatic enrolment applies to them, including those you do not enrol. Your pension provider may do this for you.
• Within five months, complete your declaration of compliance, telling The Pensions Regulator how you met your duties, even if you have no one to enrol. You need the letter code from its letter and your PAYE reference. If someone does it for you, the legal duty is still yours.
• If you set up the scheme late, after six weeks from your duties start date, you must backdate the contributions you have missed.

Who you must put into a pension ​

Assess each person against the thresholds for 2026/27, which the government kept at their 2025/26 levels:

• Must be enrolled, and you pay in: staff aged at least 22 but under State Pension age, earning over the trigger.
• Can opt in, and you pay in: staff aged 16 to 74 earning above the lower level who are not in the group above, including people under 22 or over State Pension age who earn over the trigger. If they ask, you must enrol them, and “The employer must pay employer contributions”.
• Can ask to join, and you need not pay in: staff aged 16 to 74 earning at or below the lower level. You must arrange membership and deduct their contributions, but you do not have to pay in yourself unless you choose to or your scheme requires it.

The thresholds for 2027/28 had not been announced when this guide was checked. The government reviews them every tax year, and changes take effect from 6 April.

How much to pay in ​

The legal minimum is 8% of your member of staff’s earnings. “You, the employer, must pay at least 3%”, and can choose to pay more; the rest comes from the member of staff. At the minimum, you work it out on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year for 2026/27, including overtime, bonuses, commission, statutory sick pay and statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay. You must pay in every time you run payroll, on dates agreed with your provider. By law, money taken from staff pay must reach the scheme “by the 22nd (19th if you pay by cheque) day of the next month”.

Your pension contributions do not count towards the minimum wage, and a salary sacrifice must not take pay below it: see our guide to the minimum wage.

Variable hours and seasonal staff ​

“Monitor the ages and earnings of your staff every time you pay them.” Assess seasonal and temporary staff “individually every time you pay them”, even if they work for you for a few days or weeks. When someone first qualifies, for example by earning over £192 in a week between 22 and State Pension age, you must put them into the scheme and write to them within six weeks. Once in, they stay in, and contributions rise and fall with their pay. If pay drops below the trigger but stays above the lower level, you still pay in.

Postponement lets you delay assessing someone for up to three months, from your duties start date, their first day of work, or the day they first meet the age and earnings criteria. It can suit staff who will leave within three months, staff on probation, or a one-off peak from overtime or a bonus.

• Write to the staff you postpone within six weeks from the day after postponement starts.
• If they ask to join during postponement, enrol them.
• At the end, assess them and, if they qualify, enrol them straight away.
• It does not change your declaration deadline, and “You can’t use postponement at re-enrolment.”

Opting out, and what you must not do ​

• Opting out. Staff can leave within one month, “from and including the first day of the opt-out period”, through the pension provider; you must tell them how. You stop the deductions and refund what you took. As GOV.UK puts it, “If you opt out within a month of your employer adding you to the scheme, you’ll get back any money you’ve already paid in.”
• No pressure. GOV.UK says your employer cannot “encourage or force you to opt out”. The Pensions Act 2008 forbids any action whose “sole or main purpose” is to induce a worker to leave. The Pensions Regulator’s examples include offering a one-off payment, a higher salary, a promotion or a renewed contract in return for opting out.
• Recruitment. You must not ask or say anything that “states or implies that a job applicant’s success could depend on whether or not they opt out”. The penalty is £1,000 to £5,000, depending on the number of staff.
• Fair treatment. You must not treat a worker unfairly, or dismiss them, on grounds related to these duties.

You can still tell staff about the benefits of your scheme, but avoid giving financial advice.

Records and re-enrolment ​

Keep the names and addresses of the staff you enrolled, when contributions were paid, requests to join or leave, and your scheme reference for six years; requests to leave for four years. “Every three years you must put certain staff who have left your pension scheme back into it”, and complete a re-declaration of compliance whether or not anyone goes back in. The Pensions Regulator writes to you before your re-enrolment date.

Fines and enforcement ​

If you miss a deadline or do not pay what is due, The Pensions Regulator may send a compliance notice or an unpaid contributions notice. If you do not act on it, a fixed penalty of £400 can follow, then an escalating penalty at a daily rate of £50 to £10,000 that depends on the number of staff: £50 for 1 to 4, £500 for 5 to 49, £2,500 for 50 to 249, £5,000 for 250 to 499 and £10,000 for 500 or more. You will be expected to backdate missed contributions, and may be required to pay your staff’s share as well as your own. A penalty does not remove the need to complete your declaration. Wilfully failing to enrol staff, or knowingly giving false information in a declaration, is a criminal offence: “the maximum punishment is two years in prison or a fine”.

Common questions ​

My staff work variable hours or only for the season. Who do I enrol? Assess them every time you pay them. Anyone aged 22 to State Pension age who earns over the trigger in that pay period (£192 a week, £833 a month) must be enrolled, and stays in. For staff who will leave within three months, you can use postponement.

Can I wait three months before enrolling new starters? Yes, with postponement, but you must write to them, enrol them if they ask, and assess them at the end. Your declaration deadline does not move.

Can I pay more to someone who opts out? No. A higher salary or a one-off payment in return for opting out is one of The Pensions Regulator’s examples of an inducement, which the law forbids. If the person is later put back in, you have no legal right to recover what you gave them.

I missed my declaration deadline. What now? Complete your duties and the declaration as soon as you can. If a notice has been sent and you do not comply, the £400 fixed penalty and then daily penalties can follow, and missed contributions must be backdated.

What about staff under 22 or over State Pension age? They are not enrolled automatically. Aged 16 to 74 and earning above the lower level, they can opt in and you must pay in; at or below it, they can ask to join but you need not pay in. The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 would let the government lower the age of 22 and reduce or remove the lower level by regulations, but that section was not in force when this guide was checked. The law still says “aged at least 22”.

A short checklist ​

• Your duties start date, and the six-week and five-month deadlines from it.
• A letter to every member of staff, including those you do not enrol.
• Staff assessed against the 2026/27 thresholds every payday.
• At least 3% from you and 8% in total, with staff deductions paid in by the 22nd of the next month (the 19th by cheque).
• No pressure on anyone, including job applicants, to opt out.
• Opt-outs refunded; records kept for six years (requests to leave, four).
• A diary note for re-enrolment every three years, and for the 2027/28 thresholds.

Sources ​

• The Pensions Regulator, I’m an employer who has to provide a pension, 5 August 2026: the duties start date, backdating if the scheme is set up late; Work out who you need to put into a pension scheme and Write to your staff, 30 April 2026: assessing staff, the six-week deadline.
• The Pensions Regulator, Declare your compliance, 7 August 2026: the five-month deadline, letter code and PAYE reference, the duty staying with you.
• The Pensions Regulator, Your ongoing duties, 16 April 2026: monitoring every payday, opt-outs, records for six and four years, re-enrolment; Earnings thresholds, 7 April 2026: the 2026/27 thresholds by pay period, changes from 6 April.
• The Pensions Regulator, Making contributions to your pension scheme, 7 September 2026: 8% and 3%, qualifying earnings, the types of pay, the payment deadline.
• The Pensions Regulator, Employing seasonal or temporary staff and Assessing staff whose hours and pay varies, 14 and 30 April 2026; Postponement, last updated 7 September 2026; Re-enrolment and re-declaration, 24 July 2026.
• The Pensions Regulator, How we enforce, 30 April 2026: notices, the fixed and escalating penalties, the prohibited recruitment conduct penalty, prosecution; Warnings, notices and payment of fines: backdating, paying staff contributions, the declaration after a penalty.
• The Pensions Regulator, automatic enrolment detailed guidance no. 1, Employer duties and defining the workforce, 28 April 2026: the categories of worker and who pays in; no. 7, Opting out and no. 8, Safeguarding individuals, 17 June 2026: the opt-out period, refunds, inducements, prohibited recruitment conduct, unfair treatment.
• Department for Work and Pensions, Review of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band for 2026/27, 18 December 2025: the 2026/27 thresholds kept at 2025/26 levels, the review every tax year.
• GOV.UK, Workplace pensions, updated 30 September 2026: what your employer cannot do, opting out within a month.
• Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Calculating the minimum wage: employer pension contributions do not count towards minimum wage pay; salary sacrifice must not take pay below it.
• legislation.gov.uk, Pensions Act 2008, section 3: automatic enrolment from age 22; section 54: inducements. The Employers’ Duties (Registration and Compliance) Regulations 2010: the five-month period (regulation 3), the daily rates of escalating penalties (regulation 13). Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023, section 1: powers to lower the age and the lower level, not in force when checked.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. For your own staff, use The Pensions Regulator’s duties timeline or ask your pension provider.