Hiring your first shop assistant: the paperwork, the pay and the permissions
Taking on a first helper: employee, worker, self-employed or agency, the HMRC, pension and insurance paperwork, what an employee costs beyond the hourly rate in 2026 to 2027, and the shop access a packer or a bookkeeper should have. Checked 9 November 2026.
This guide is for the sole trader whose shop has outgrown one pair of hands and who is about to hire a packer, a Saturday shop assistant or a bookkeeper. It covers who you are hiring in law, the paperwork due before the first payday, the true cost in 2026 to 2027, and how to give that person only the access the job needs. Disclosure: we build Orbit Commerce, a hosted ecommerce platform with staff roles built in, so weigh the Orbit section accordingly. Every figure was read at its linked source on 9 November 2026. None of this is legal advice: the Acas helpline (0300 123 1100, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm) is free.
In short
- The minimum wage from 1 April 2026 is £12.71 an hour at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, and £8 under 18 and for apprentices (gov.uk, read 9 November 2026).
- Employer National Insurance is 15% above £96 a week in 2026 to 2027, but the £10,500 Employment Allowance usually cancels it for a first hire.
- Before the first payday: a right-to-work check, HMRC registration, £5 million of employers’ liability cover and the written statement on day one.
- Sick pay has run from the first day off since 6 April 2026; unfair dismissal protection starts at six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027.
- Never share your login. On Orbit a helper gets an invitation of their own on the Team plan at £85 a month, one of seven ready-made roles, and an activity log that carries their name.
Employee, worker or self-employed: who are you actually hiring?
The label on the contract does not decide this; the facts do, and tribunals have the final say (gov.uk, employment status, read 9 November 2026). Someone is probably an employee if most of these hold: they must work regularly unless on leave, must do a minimum number of hours, cannot send someone else, and get paid holiday. Someone on a casual or zero-hours arrangement is likely a worker: owed the minimum wage, paid holiday, rest breaks and payslips, but not employee-only rights such as redundancy pay. A genuinely self-employed person quotes for work, is not supervised, invoices you and pays their own tax; get it wrong and both of you may owe unpaid tax and penalties, so use HMRC’s online status check first. With an agency worker you pay the agency, which handles their National Insurance and sick pay, though their health and safety stays with you (gov.uk).
| Route | What they are owed | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Employee, paid through your PAYE | Minimum wage, 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, written statement, sick pay, pension if eligible, notice | A regular packer with set hours |
| Casual or zero-hours worker, paid through your PAYE | Minimum wage, holiday on hours worked, rest breaks, payslips, written statement; free to work elsewhere | A Saturday or Christmas helper |
| Self-employed contractor, paid on invoice | What the contract says, plus health and safety | A bookkeeper with other clients |
| Agency worker, paid by the agency | Your staff’s basic terms after 12 weeks | Cover for a few weeks |
What paperwork do you need before the first payday?
Gov.uk’s first-employer checklist (read 9 November 2026) covers the same ground as the seven steps below, which come in the order a first hire meets them:
- Check their right to work before they start: online with a share code, from original documents with them present, or through an identity service provider. Keep copies for the employment and two years after, and record the date (gov.uk). The civil penalty is up to £60,000 per illegal worker (gov.uk).
- Register as an employer if anyone is paid £96 or more a week, gets expenses or benefits, has another job or gets a pension (gov.uk): before the first payday and no more than two months before you start paying (gov.uk).
- Insure: at least £5 million of employers’ liability cover from the day you employ. The fine is £2,500 for every uninsured day and £1,000 for not displaying the certificate; only close family are exempt (gov.uk).
- Hand over the written statement on day one. Employees and workers get the principal statement on their first day (pay, hours, holiday, probation, sick pay and notice among them) and the wider statement (pensions, disciplinary and grievance procedures) within two months (gov.uk). Acas has free templates for an employee and for a worker.
- Pension duties start the day they start. Even if nobody qualifies yet, file the declaration of compliance within five months or risk a fine (The Pensions Regulator).
- Set up payroll. Report pay to HMRC on or before every payday (gov.uk); HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools is free for fewer than ten employees (gov.uk). Payslips go out on or before payday (gov.uk).
- Health and safety: assess the risks of the stockroom and packing bench and display the law poster or give the leaflet; under five employees nothing need be written down (HSE).
What is the minimum wage in November 2026?
These rates took effect on 1 April 2026; the April 2027 rates are already published (gov.uk, National Minimum Wage rates, read 9 November 2026).
| Age band | From 1 April 2026 | From 1 April 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 21 and over (National Living Wage) | £12.71 | £13.21 |
| 18 to 20 | £10.85 | £11.27 |
| Under 18, above school leaving age | £8 | £8.31 |
| Apprentice | £8 | £8.31 |
The apprentice rate applies only under 19, or at 19 and over in the first year of the apprenticeship. So a 17-year-old Saturday helper costs at least £8 an hour, £10.85 at 18 and £12.71 at 21. Rates change every April.
What does an employee cost beyond the hourly rate?
Employer National Insurance. In 2026 to 2027 you pay 15% of pay above £96 a week, or £5,000 a year (gov.uk, rates and thresholds, read 9 November 2026). The Employment Allowance takes up to £10,500 a year off that bill (gov.uk), enough to cover the employer National Insurance on about £75,000 of pay, and a sole trader hiring an assistant normally qualifies (eligibility). For employees under 21 and apprentices under 25 the rate is 0% up to £967 a week (gov.uk).
Pension. Anyone aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000 a year must be enrolled in a workplace pension you both pay into; others can ask to join (The Pensions Regulator). The minimum is 8% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, with at least 3% paid by you (gov.uk), figures kept unchanged for 2026 to 2027 (DWP review, 18 December 2025).
Holiday. 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, capped at 28 days, and bank holidays can count inside it (gov.uk). Irregular-hours workers accrue 12.07% of hours worked (gov.uk).
Sick pay. Since 6 April 2026 Statutory Sick Pay has run from the first full day of sickness, whatever they earn, at £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks (gov.uk, published 18 March 2026).
| Cost line, 20 hours a week at £12.71 | The 2026 to 2027 rule | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Wages | £254.20 a week for 52 weeks, holiday included | £13,218 |
| Employer National Insurance | £1,234 before the £10,500 allowance | £0 if you claim it |
| Pension | 3% of earnings above £6,240 | About £209 |
So about £13,430 a year plus insurance. Put it beside your margins: sole trader or limited company covers how a wage bill sits in your own tax, and small business grants covers what help is on offer for hiring.
Part-time, casual or Saturday-only: which contract, and what changed in 2026?
A part-time employee has a full-timer’s rights pro rata, with overtime due only above full-time hours (gov.uk). A zero-hours worker gets the minimum wage and statutory holiday, and you cannot stop them working elsewhere. Write the hours you actually expect into the statement; a “casual” label does not change the facts. For training, an employer outside the apprenticeship levy pays nothing towards training apprentices aged 16 to 24 and 5% for older ones (gov.uk).
The Employment Rights Act 2025 is arriving in stages (government timeline, updated 5 November 2026, read 9 November 2026). Day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave and the sick pay change took effect on 6 April 2026, the Fair Work Agency opened on 7 April 2026, and since 30 October 2026 employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff. From 1 January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls to six months, with uncapped compensation, for dismissals from that date, and workers must be told of their right to join a trade union. Guaranteed hours for zero-hours workers have no date yet, and all future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes.
Which permissions should a packer, a Saturday helper or a bookkeeper have?
The commonest mistake is the easiest: the helper is handed the owner’s login. Every action then carries your name, and when they leave you change the password everywhere and hope they never saved it. The ICO says personal data should be “accessed, altered, disclosed or deleted only by those you have authorised to do so” (ICO, read 9 November 2026); the NCSC adds that leavers’ accounts “often stay active without anyone noticing” (NCSC). So give each person a login of their own, with only what the job needs. Ask what they must see, what they must change, and what would hurt if it went wrong: refunds, prices, customer data, anything that deletes.
| Who | Needs | Should not have | Orbit role |
|---|---|---|---|
| A packer | Orders to pick, stock levels, shipping rates | Prices, refunds, discounts, customer exports, settings | Fulfilment |
| A Saturday or customer-service helper | Orders, customer details, one-off emails, gift cards; refunds if you trust them | Product edits, prices, discounts, settings | Customer Support if they may refund, Store Staff if not |
| A bookkeeper | Read-only orders and the reports they ask for | Any edit | A custom role with view permissions only |
| A freelance marketer | Discounts, pages, blog, navigation, media, analytics | Orders, customers, prices | Marketing |
A starter and leaver checklist for your shop’s logins
The platform is one of four systems a helper can touch, with the mailbox, the courier account and the bank.
Before day one
- Right-to-work check dated, written statement filled in, payroll set up, insurer told.
- Shop platform: their own invitation with the right role; refund and pricing switches off unless the job needs them.
- Email: a mailbox or alias of their own, never your password.
- Courier account: a sub-user if the carrier offers one, never your login.
- Bank and payment provider: no access; a bookkeeper gets read-only or accountant access from the bank itself.
- Unavoidable shared passwords (the till, the printer’s wifi) live in a password manager.
Their first week
- Day one: statement signed, HMRC’s starter checklist done, a walk round the stockroom for the safety basics.
- Day two or three: set up the second factor on their login with them.
- End of the week: look at the activity log together, so they know changes carry their name and you know the role fits.
When they leave
- Remove their platform access the same day; do not rely on changing a password.
- Remove them from the courier portal, the mailbox, the password manager and any marketplace accounts, and rotate the passwords they had to know.
- Keep right-to-work copies for two years after they leave.
Where Orbit fits
Solo’s one staff account is yours, so the day you invite a helper you need the Team plan at £85 a month (£64 a month billed yearly, ex VAT) with ten seats; Pro has 40 at £249 and Enterprise unlimited, with no charge per seat.
On the Team page you invite by email with a name and a role; the link works for seven days, or you hand it over yourself. They set their own password, and every staff account must add a second factor (a passkey, an authenticator app or a text code) within 14 days of first sign-in, or the dashboard will not let them in. There are seven ready-made roles: Store Owner, Store Administrator, Store Staff, Fulfilment (orders, stock, transfers and shipping rates, plus pick lists and cycle counts on Enterprise; never prices or refunds), Customer Support (orders, refunds, customer details, gift cards and one-off emails), Marketing (discounts, pages, blog posts, navigation, redirects, media and analytics) and Catalogue Manager (products, prices, stock, categories, brands, tags and media). Or tick permissions area by area for a role of your own, duplicate and trim a ready-made one, or switch one optional permission for one person. Issue refunds and Manage product pricing are separate switches, anything a role can never hold is listed under Restricted Permissions with the reason, and you can only grant what you hold yourself.
Remove someone and their access ends on their next request while their history stays, and the activity log keeps every refund, price edit and team change with a name on it; store activity is kept 180 days and security, role and permission events two years (see security). Read inventory and fulfilment without the chaos for the packer’s side; the plugin store has Xero and QuickBooks add-ons, and our bookkeeping post covers getting sales into them.
Read next: two-factor sign-in and passkeys and fifteen shop jobs you can stop doing by hand.
Questions people ask about hiring your first shop assistant
Do I have to register as an employer for a Saturday helper on a few hours?
Only if they are paid £96 or more a week in 2026 to 2027, get expenses or benefits, have another job or get a pension; below that you keep payroll records without registering (gov.uk, read 9 November 2026). Every other duty, from the minimum wage to the pension, applies from day one.
What is the minimum wage for a 17-year-old shop assistant?
£8 an hour from 1 April 2026 for anyone under 18 and above school leaving age, rising to £8.31 on 1 April 2027. It is £10.85 at 18 to 20 and £12.71 at 21 and over (gov.uk, read 9 November 2026).
How much does an employee cost on top of their wages?
In 2026 to 2027: employer National Insurance at 15% above £96 a week, usually cancelled by the £10,500 Employment Allowance; at least 3% pension on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 once they earn over £10,000; 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday; sick pay from the first day off; and £5 million of employers’ liability cover. A 20-hour assistant on £12.71 costs about £13,430 a year, £13,218 of it wages, plus insurance.
Can I share my shop login with my assistant?
You should not. Every action then carries your name, the ICO expects personal data to be reachable only by people you have authorised, and when they leave you are changing passwords everywhere. Give them their own account and a role cut to the job; on Orbit that means the Team plan, because Solo’s single seat is the owner’s.
What should I do about their access when they leave?
Remove their platform login the same day, then the mailbox, the courier portal, the password manager and any marketplace accounts, and rotate the passwords they had to know. Keep right-to-work copies for two years. On Orbit, Remove ends access on their next request and keeps their history.
Most of this paperwork is a day’s work done once. Settle the status question first, re-read the gov.uk pages when you hire because the figures move every April, and give the new person a login of their own. The 14-day free trial, no card required, is long enough to invite a helper and set their permissions.