Rights of Workers: National Minimum Wage and the Payment of Wages

National minimum wage

All workers have the right to be paid the national minimum wage. You do not have to be an employee to be entitled to it, and should receive it even if you work at home, work on piecework rates or on commission, or if you work at home. You should also receive it if you work part time or on a casual basis, or are employed through an agency.

At present the minimum hourly rate is set at £5.52. Workers aged 18 or over but who have not reached 22 are entitled to a minimum hourly rate of £4.60. Workers who are above compulsory school age but have not reached their 18th birthday are entitled to £3.40/ hour.

There are a number of exemptions from the minimum wage requirements. This includes:

· Self-Employed (must show that it is genuine self employment)
· Volunteers,
· Apprentices under 19, or, if over 19, within the first 12 months of their apprenticeship,
· students doing work as part of their undergraduate or post-graduate course,
· Prisoners,
· The armed forces;
· Share fishermen.

There are specific detailed provisions exist for trainees taking part in training schemes. Some training schemes should be treated as apprenticeships, and so the provisions for apprentices apply to them. Trainees in other training schemes are not considered workers so are not entitled to the minimum wage at all.

Payment of wages

Employers are under a duty to keep records of the wages paid to their workers. You can inspect your records by making a written request to your employer. Employers must produce these records within 14 days of the request. If you are not being paid the minimum wage, you can contact the Inland Revenue enforcement agency or bring a claim yourself in the Employment Tribunal. The Inland Revenue enforcement agency can only enforce the national minimum wage in respect of workers who are still in employment.

You are entitled to be paid the minimum wage both for time when you are actually working and for time when you are available for work at or near your place of work. If, for example, your job requires you to be at a certain place ready to perform tasks as and when required you are entitled to be paid the minimum wage for the whole of that time even if you are free to do as you please between tasks.

The method and frequency of wages or salary are as set out in your written statement. If deductions are made unlawfully from your pay you can make a claim to an Employment Tribunal. Deductions are lawful only if you have given your consent in writing or if this is provided for in your contract. However, there are exceptions allowing your employer to make deductions in respect of: overpayment of wages and expenses; payments by law to public authorities; payments to third parties, for example to trade unions, or deductions following a strike or other industrial action. The law as to unlawful deductions applies not just to employees but to all workers provided they have undertaken to do the work personally.