Are you being paid the national minimum wage?

tizerbelle

gregglesuk said:

I have a friend who works for tesco - they currently get £11.07 an hour but are being told they won't be getting a pay rise until april 28th.
Is this legal? 
I thought the new minimum wage took effect from april 1st.
Can anyone shed any light on this?

It is legal as paying NMW is more nuanced than the new rates apply from 1 April. 
The new rates apply to the first full pay period falling after the 1st April and not the day the work is done.  
So if you are paid monthly on the 28th, your pay period would be 29th March to 28th April - so these would be at the old rate and then the higher rates would apply to the pay you get in the next pay period (29th April to 28th May).
 

EnPointe

NorthantsPete81 said:

I think the law needs changing for being on call. A judge in america ruled that a fireman who was on call 24/7 had no free time which is illegal and got paid full time wage for being on call because he had time restraints.

ALL people in IT have a response time required so you cant go camping or shopping in case you get called out and have to log on and spend upto 24 hours fixing problems... sometimes there is no backup so its JUST YOU supporting multiple businesses out of hours as a cheap way for big business to cover their services without paying for a 24/7 rota.

 we get paid £2 an hour to be on call yet if we dont respond in a certain time or the customer doesn't get a fix you get disciplinary action, so i put it that we are actually on shift and should be paid full time wage like a night shift and not just the time we work but the time we are acting as a call centre.

the company just brush it under the carpet saying " it doesn't happen that often" or " we had no priority 1 this week so once again we dont need to pay you time" yet here we all are nervous we cant go anywhere in case the phone goes off. Ive had guys who cancel kids plays or football training because " we may have to work".. that to me says our free time is affected.

To me, we are like the fireman, if we have a responsibility to work within a time frame we should be paid full time. it cannot impact our free time, which it does , otherwise you're on company time.

Law says nothing, it just says " check your contract" ..and those contracts are slavery, in my eyes, they can make it up as they go along 

what is the response expectation ? 
immediate ? minutes ?  within the hour ?  within 4 hours ?  

gregglesuk

General_Grant said:

gregglesuk said:

I have a friend who works for tesco - they currently get £11.07 an hour but are being told they won't be getting a pay rise until april 28th.
Is this legal? 
I thought the new minimum wage took effect from april 1st.
Can anyone shed any light on this?

As £11.07 is more than the current statutory minimum, presumably the payrise will also be above the new rate effective from 1 April. 
Meeting the requirement to pay at least national minimums depends on the average pay during the pay reference period.
So it probably depends on exactly when the new Tesco rate applies.

the pay is going to approx £12.xx so will be above the new NWM - they're being told that as because the pay period is april then it only applies AFTER that pay period

Savvy_Sue

gregglesuk said:

the pay is going to approx £12.xx so will be above the new NWM - they're being told that as because the pay period is april then it only applies AFTER that pay period

and that is correct: first pay period ending after the increase takes effect. 

MrWFH

I'm paid the minimum wage on my payslips, but I work from home so I have extra costs like utilities etc. My employer does not cover any of these costs, so am I actually underpaid? 

Savvy_Sue

MrWFH said:

I'm paid the minimum wage on my payslips, but I work from home so I have extra costs like utilities etc. My employer does not cover any of these costs, so am I actually underpaid? 

It's not one of the 8 reasons you MIGHT be being underpaid on the MSE guide. And I think it would be difficult to work out what a fair rate of recompense for this might be - it would vary so much. 

You can claim a tax reduction for WFH - have you done that? https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

lincroft1710

MrWFH said:

I'm paid the minimum wage on my payslips, but I work from home so I have extra costs like utilities etc. My employer does not cover any of these costs, so am I actually underpaid? 

Working from home you do not have commuting costs (even walking will wear out shoes) which you would have to pay for.

LITRG

MrWFH said:

I'm paid the minimum wage on my payslips, but I work from home so I have extra costs like utilities etc. My employer does not cover any of these costs, so am I actually underpaid? 

Hello - the rule is that to reduce NMW pay, the expense has to be in connection with the employment: https://www.litrg.org.uk/working/employment-status/employment-rights/national-minimum-wage It includes any requirement imposed on the worker by the employer either contractually or otherwise. It does not include costs incurred to be in a position to do or secure the job.