Am I being underpaid at my new job

alyssadrysdale

Started a new job in October and my current wage is under £19,000 per annum.

I am 23 years old, nearly 24, and living in Scotland and I thought the National Living Wage went up - not sure if it is illegal to be paid less than that.

Just don't want to start chasing them and asking questions if that is not the case.

74jax

How many hours do you work and what is your salary?
EDIT
Your other post says your salary is £18,585.57.  If you work 37.5 hours you are earning slightly more than minimum living wage. 

alyssadrysdale

Thank you, just a bit confused. Just trying to find my feet on all of this - thank you.

Ath_Wat

This could be another case of confusion between the National Living Wage and the Real Living Wage.  The latter is much higher and was recently increased, but is just an independent organisation setting a standard they have calculated is appropriate - it has no force in law and the government ignore it.

The National Living Wage is legally enforceable but was just a rebranding of the minimum wage brought in purposely to confuse people.

Marcon

alyssadrysdale said:

Started a new job in October and my current wage is under £19,000 per annum.

I am 23 years old, nearly 24, and living in Scotland and I thought the National Living Wage went up - not sure if it is illegal to be paid less than that.

Just don't want to start chasing them and asking questions if that is not the case.

A quick google on 'minimum wage' would have taken you straight to the answer - and given you a handy calculator (which you might useful if you want to check if, say, your hours change in the future): https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates

TheSpiddalKid

There is one thing to be aware of with salaries at or close to NMW rates when paid monthly. The common way of calculating the salary can be to take an hourly rate, multiply it by contracted weekly hours and then multiply by 52 (or 52.3) to give an overall annual salary, then finally divide it by 12 to give a monthly amount. The problem with this is the way NMW earnings are calculated look at the hours worked per payroll period and there arent the same number of working days each month so some months can be above NMW earnings and some can be below. 

looking above if earnings of £18,585.57 are paid equally each month then this would be £1,548.80 each month, whereas if you see the table below there are some months where because of the number of working days in the month the earnings for NMW (based on adult rate) are above this. 

start date	end date	working days	hours	NMW earning	Difference2
01/01/2022	31/01/2022	21	157.5	£1,496.25	52.55
01/02/2022	28/02/2022	20	150	£1,425.00	123.80
01/03/2022	31/03/2022	23	172.5	£1,638.75	(89.95)
01/04/2022	30/04/2022	21	157.5	£1,496.25	52.55
01/05/2022	31/05/2022	22	165	£1,567.50	(18.70)
01/06/2022	30/06/2022	22	165	£1,567.50	(18.70)
01/07/2022	31/07/2022	21	157.5	£1,496.25	52.55
01/08/2022	31/08/2022	23	172.5	£1,638.75	(89.95)
01/09/2022	30/09/2022	22	165	£1,567.50	(18.70)
01/10/2022	31/10/2022	21	157.5	£1,496.25	52.55
01/11/2022	30/11/2022	22	165	£1,567.50	(18.70)
01/12/2022	31/12/2022	22	165	£1,567.50	(18.70)