Paid below NMW

DixieBear123

I’ve been doing some sums and believe my employer has been paying me below the minimum wage. 

And now it seems to hide this (or make up for it but they haven’t actually acknowledged it) they are increasing my pay next year slightly above the new minimum wage which will, after a year, make up for the missing wages I am due. 

I’m just not sure if I should address this with my boss. They do give a yearly bonus and have given me discounts on items purchased in store. So I would hate to lose out on that by making a big deal of it, considering I will be getting the missing sum eventually. 

However on a separate issue, I also feel I am due a pay rise. This is irrespective of the situation above but more to do with what I feel I deserve due to the work I put in & the unique skills and knowledge I have that my colleagues don’t have (yet they’re paid the same). Could I somehow factor this in as well? (Without it sounding like blackmail of course) 

Also just to note, I work for a small business so there is no HR department etc.

What would you do in my shoes? Thank you. 

JCS1

What do you get paid gross, how many hours do you work and how old are you?  it's worth someone checking your figures first.  Also some bonus payments can be included as part of NMW.

kimwp

Can you quantify what value the unique skills and knowledge you have bring to the role - this would be a good starting point for a payrise discussion.

Marcon

DixieBear123 said:

I’ve been doing some sums and believe my employer has been paying me below the minimum wage. 

And now it seems to hide this (or make up for it but they haven’t actually acknowledged it) they are increasing my pay next year slightly above the new minimum wage which will, after a year, make up for the missing wages I am due. 

I’m just not sure if I should address this with my boss. They do give a yearly bonus and have given me discounts on items purchased in store. So I would hate to lose out on that by making a big deal of it, considering I will be getting the missing sum eventually. 

However on a separate issue, I also feel I am due a pay rise. This is irrespective of the situation above but more to do with what I feel I deserve due to the work I put in & the unique skills and knowledge I have that my colleagues don’t have (yet they’re paid the same). Could I somehow factor this in as well? (Without it sounding like blackmail of course) 

Also just to note, I work for a small business so there is no HR department etc.

What would you do in my shoes? Thank you. 

You say that you 'believe...'. First thing I'd do is make sure. What's your contract say about payment - are you paid hourly or on an annual salary? Are you entitled to paid overtime? How much is the underpayment (1p an hour isn't worth fussing about if bonus/discount are good; £1 an hour most certainly is!).

DixieBear123

kimwp - I can't exactly quantify it. I have just revamped everything to make things more efficient, and everyone (including my manager) seeks my knowledge and advice on particular jobs. Whereas others literally do nothing all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm giving 110%. I can't do less, it's just not the way I work. 

Marcon - The sums add up perfectly. I'm sure I was paid £8.72 per hour last year instead of £8.91. From April 2022 my pay is increasing to the new NMW (£9.50) plus an additional £300-odd that I was not paid last year (For working full time). I did not receive a contract (despite requesting one). I thought I was paid hourly, they now say it's a salary but I think that's just because they don't keep a note of the exact hours worked. 

It's very awkward, already my boss seems a bit off with me and I think this might be why (I've caught them out and they don't like it). The discounts are good when I find something worth buying, but I don't think I'll be purchasing many more items in future. Likewise the annual discretionary bonus is good (£1000) and I don't want to jeopardize that. 

Undervalued

DixieBear123 said:

kimwp - I can't exactly quantify it. I have just revamped everything to make things more efficient, and everyone (including my manager) seeks my knowledge and advice on particular jobs. Whereas others literally do nothing all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm giving 110%. I can't do less, it's just not the way I work. 

Marcon - The sums add up perfectly. I'm sure I was paid £8.72 per hour last year instead of £8.91. From April 2022 my pay is increasing to the new NMW (£9.50) plus an additional £300-odd that I was not paid last year (For working full time). I did not receive a contract (despite requesting one). I thought I was paid hourly, they now say it's a salary but I think that's just because they don't keep a note of the exact hours worked. 

It's very awkward, already my boss seems a bit off with me and I think this might be why (I've caught them out and they don't like it). The discounts are good when I find something worth buying, but I don't think I'll be purchasing many more items in future. Likewise the annual discretionary bonus is good (£1000) and I don't want to jeopardize that. 

I think you have answered your own question there!

Yes, you have a right to be paid at least the NMW. If, after carefully checking the sums, it turns out you have not been then you have a straightforward claim for the shortfall.

They have a right not to pay a "discretionary" bonus. Generally the law allows a wide discretion so that would not be easy to successfully challenge.

Marcon

DixieBear123 said:

I thought I was paid hourly, they now say it's a salary but I think that's just because they don't keep a note of the exact hours worked. 

In that case it's hard to see how they could pay you accurately - including going forward at the new rate. Perhaps that's the conversation you need to have?

Ath_Wat

The £1000 bonus will I believe be taken into account;   if you worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year that's about 40 pence an hour, which would lift you over minimum wage (although not by much)

Rather than being a generous bonus it appears to be a way to pay you close to minimum wage while making you think they are a good employer.

DingDongitsKingKong

DixieBear123 said:

kimwp - I can't exactly quantify it. I have just revamped everything to make things more efficient, and everyone (including my manager) seeks my knowledge and advice on particular jobs. Whereas others literally do nothing all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm giving 110%. I can't do less, it's just not the way I work. 

Pretty much every work environment operates this way and it does do my head in aswell. You do more but this isn't reflected in your pay. The one advantage to this is that there is no pressure on you to rush or do more than others.

kimwp

DixieBear123 said:

kimwp - I can't exactly quantify it. I have just revamped everything to make things more efficient, and everyone (including my manager) seeks my knowledge and advice on particular jobs. Whereas others literally do nothing all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm giving 110%. I can't do less, it's just not the way I work. 

If you are working the way you want to work and they are working the way they want to work, then it's not really unfair. And they can't literally be doing nothing (or if they are, why care, it will only bring you down.) There's a lot of things that happen in the workplace that may not seem to be doing work on a fiscal level but add a lot to the workplace in other ways.

In terms of your contributions, if you revamped everything to make things more efficient, then if it's a one-off and you did it in your normal hours then it's possibly grounds for a small bonus or other recognition or something to add to your CV if you want to do this kind of thing more frequently in another job, but really it's what every professional should be doing - if you think there are lots of opportunities to do more things like this in your workplace, you could ask for an "improvements manager" role or similar and an increase to go with this. Specialised knowledge on a certain job is potentially grounds for a raise, worth asking, but you'd need to go in with a figure in mind.

Andy_L

DixieBear123 said:

kimwp - I can't exactly quantify it. I have just revamped everything to make things more efficient, and everyone (including my manager) seeks my knowledge and advice on particular jobs. Whereas others literally do nothing all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'm giving 110%. I can't do less, it's just not the way I work. 

t. 

Can you put numbers to the efficiency increase? Eg it now takes x% less time to do task y due to your improvements?