The National Minimum Wage
By Neil Atkinson

The national minimum wage is something you need to consider when hiring employees for your company. A national minimum wage is in place to ensure that workers can count on having a minimum pay rate for the hours that they work. The rates are set by the Low Pay Commission that has been in operation since 1999, and these rates have risen annually. In addition, these rates are enforced by a network of 16 teams of National Compliance Officers for Minimum Wage and a telephone hotline that your employees can call in if they are not getting their National Minimum Wage. It is extremely important for every employer to know what the National Minimum Wage is and who is entitled to earn it.

The Three Minimum Wage Bands

There are three rates, based on an age group for the National Minimum Wage. Why three? There are three different age groups, so that older employees are not being taken advantage of, and to ensure that employees are earning enough to make an acceptable living.

The first age group is for adults over the age of 22 and they should be receiving no less than £5.52 per hour. There is an accommodation offset for all employees who are working out of town and you are providing their accommodation. This rate is £4.30 (or £30.10 per week). This is a daily rate, and should be added to their pay packet for each day that they work out of town for you.

The next age group is called the development rate. This is for people who are between the ages of 18 to 21. This age group should receive no less than £4.60 per hour. This age group should also receive the accommodation off set for out of town work where you provide the accommodations. Once these employees turn the age of 22, you are required to give them a raise to put them into the first age group's National Minimum Wage.

Depending on your location and when your employee's birthday is, until they are passed the age of compulsory for school, and reach the age of 18, they are entitled to £3.40 per hour. Again, as soon as they reach the age of 18, they must be given the development rate.

Complaint? Pick Up the Phone!

If you are an employee that is not making the National Minimum Wage for your age, you can fill out a complaint form that is available online or call the National Minimum Wage hotline. The complaint will be looked into and if the situation needs to be corrected, it will be.

If you are an employer, you need to make sure that you are paying your employees the National Minimum Wage. By doing so, you also follow the law and will not be subject to a complaint, or worse, charges.

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