18 March 2010
This information applies to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
All employees are entitled to be paid for the work they have done. They are also entitled to be paid if they are ready and willing to work but their employer has not provided them with any work to do, unless your employment contract says otherwise.
If you're an employee, you're entitled to be paid if you can't work because you are off sick or away from work on maternity leave, paternity leave or adoption leave, or parental leave. You are also allowed a certain number of days paid holiday a year.
In most of these situations, you are entitled to your usual wage whilst off work. There are some exceptions to these rules. For example, parents on maternity leave, paternity or adoption leave, or parental leave, are entitled to a certain amount of paid leave but the law sets out the rate at which this must be paid and it may not be as much as their usual wage.
If you are employee on sick pay, your contract may give you less pay than your normal pay. By law, most employees are entitled to the legal minimum statutory sick pay. Your contract may give you more pay than this.
You may be entitled to unpaid time off work in other circumstances, for example, in a family emergency or on jury service.
For a complete list of situations where an employee is entitled to be paid for time off work, and which time off work they are entitled to be paid for, see Basic rights at work.
For more information about maternity pay and maternity leave, see Parental rights at work.
For more information about statutory sick pay, see Off work because of sickness.
For more information about holiday pay, see Holidays and holiday pay.
An employer can offer childcare support to employees under a 'salary sacrifice' scheme. This is a scheme which allows a worker to give up part of their salary in return for vouchers to pay for childcare. There are tax advantages to these schemes, but receiving a childcare voucher instead of pay may reduce your pay to below the lower earnings limit and could affect your right to certain benefits.
For more information about childcare vouchers, see Benefits for families and children.
Nearly all workers are entitled to the national minimum wage - see under heading National minimum wage (NMW) for more details. The worker may be entitled to more than this under their contract.
Any amount of wages on top of the national minimum given by law, or the amount of wages for workers who are not covered by the national minimum wage, depends on the worker’s individual contract of employment.
Employers must not discriminate in the amount that they pay their workers, for example, by paying black workers less than white workers who are doing the same job, or by paying women less than men when they are doing work of equal value. This is known as ‘equal pay’.
If you think you have been discriminated against in your pay, you should speak to an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
There is no legal right to have wages paid in any particular way, for example, for an employee to have their wages paid direct into their bank account.
The way that an employee's wages are paid will depend solely on what their contract of employment says about how their wages should be paid. If they do not have a written contract, they still have a contract of employment, but it will be a verbal contract. In cases where there is a verbal contract rather than a written contract, the way wages should be paid should have been agreed between the employer and employee, or if not, will depend on how the employer usually pays the wages of the employees in that workplace.
All employees who have worked for their employer for at least two months are entitled by law to a ‘written statement of their terms and conditions of employment’. This written statement should include, amongst other information, details of how frequently wages should be paid, such as weekly or monthly.
The employee's contract should give the following details about their wages:-
If you are not sure about whether your contract gives you the above information about your wages, you should speak to an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
For more information about who is entitled to a written statement of terms and conditions of employment and what it should contain, see Employee’s right to written details about the employment contract in Contracts of employment.
All employees are entitled to an individual written payslip, at or before the time they are paid. The payslip must show:
An employer is only entitled to make certain deductions from an employee's pay - see under heading Is the employer entitled to make deductions from an employee’s pay.
Workers in the UK aged 16 (and above school leaving age) or over are legally entitled to a national minimum hourly wage. It does not matter where they work, the size of the firm or the worker’s occupation. This includes casual labourers, agency workers, homeworkers, workers on short-term contracts and workers employed by subcontractors.
For information on whether a person is genuinely self-employed, see 'How to tell the difference between an employee and a self-employed person' in Contracts of employment.
For details of which trainees are not entitled to the NMW, you need to contact the NMW helpline or an experienced adviser. See below for details of the NMW helpline.
Apprentices do not qualify for the national minimum wage if they:
However, these apprentices are entitled to earn an amount of no less than £95 a week. This does not apply if you live in Northern Ireland.
Once you have worked as an apprentice for a year, if you have reached the age of 19 and are still working for the same employer, you will be entitled to the normal minimum wage for your age.
For most workers aged 22 and over, the standard hourly rate of the NMW is listed below. Some workers are not entitled to the NMW at all - see under heading National minimum wage (NMW)). Some workers are only entitled to be paid at a lower rate, because they are aged between 18 and 21. There are special rates of pay for agricultural workers - see under heading Wages for agricultural workers.
| Type of NMW | Hourly rate of NMW. From 01.10.07 | Hourly rate of NMW: From 1.10.08 | Hourly rate of NMW: From 1.10.09 |
| Standard rate of NMW for workers aged 22 and over | £5.52 | £5.73 | £5.80 |
| Workers aged between 18 - 21 - reduced rate NMW | £4.60 | £4.77 | £4.83 |
| Workers aged 16-17 | £3.40 | £3.53 | £3.57 |
The rules about which elements of a worker's pay, and which hours of working time, count towards calculating the NMW are very complicated.
If you think you are not being paid the national minimum wage or want to check whether you are entitled to the national minimum wage, you should contact the Pay and Work Rights helpline on 0800 917 2368 or should go to an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.
If you want to find out if you are eligible to claim the NMW, you should contact the Pay and Work Rights helpline on 0800 917 2368. You can also use an interactive calculator to work out whether you're eligible for the NMW. Go to: www.worksmart.org.uk.
There are government guides about the national minimum wage in a range of different community languages, for example, Polish, Slovak and Lithuanian. Go to: www.direct.gov.uk.
For more information about the national minimum wage in England, Wales and Scotland, see National minimum wage in Employment fact sheets. This factsheet has been translated into a number of community languages, including Polish, Czech and Slovak.
Agricultural workers are entitled to a set minimum hourly pay depending on how old they are and the kind of work they do. They have a set rate for standard pay and a set rate for overtime pay.
If the National Minimum Wage is lower than the agricultural minimum wage which applies to you, you are entitled to get the higher rate.
If you think you are an agricultural worker and are entitled to a particular level of pay, you should contact the Pay and Work Rghts helpline on 0800 917 2368.
By law, an employer is only entitled to make certain deductions from an employee’s pay. If the employer does not pay the employee at all, this counts as a 100% deduction. There are rules about what counts as pay for the purposes of when the employer can make deductions, see below.
In most cases, an employer can only lawfully make a deduction from an employee’s pay if the deduction is:-
There are particular deductions which an employer can make which do not have to fit into the categories listed above. These deductions are:
There are special rules for deductions made from shop-worker's pay.
The employer of a shop-worker can make deductions for cash shortages or missing stock. This could be, for example, because the shop-worker has been dishonest or because of theft by a customer.
The employer must give details in writing of the deduction to the employee on pay day. Any deduction for missing cash or stock must be made within 12 months of the employer discovering the shortage.
The deduction must be no more than 10% of the shop-worker's gross pay on any one payday. This deduction can be made in addition to other lawful deductions which the employer is allowed to make.
There is no limit to the amount of money that an employer can deduct in total from a shop-worker for missing cash or stock. The only limit is how much can be deducted on each pay day.
For more information in England, Wales and Scotland about your rights when your employer makes deductions from your pay, see Employer withholds your pay in Employment fact sheets.
If you have had a deduction made from your pay which you do not agree with you should seek advice from an experienced adviser, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.
When considering whether an employer can make a deduction from an employee's wages, the following all count as wages:-
Tips in cash which are voluntarily given by a customer to a worker, such as a waiter, count as a gift from the customer to the worker. They therefore do not form part of the worker’s pay. Even if the cash tips are pooled by all the workers and shared out amongst them, they still remain gifts to the workers and so are not part of their pay.
If a service charge is compulsory, that is, it is added to all bills automatically, it is the property of the employer. The employer can share it out between the workers as the employer wishes. If the worker has a clause in their contract saying they are entitled to a share of the service charge, they should get this on top of their wages.
If a tip is paid by a customer voluntarily adding an extra amount to a credit card or cheque payment, the tip is the property of the employer. The employer can share it out between the workers as the employer wishes. However, if the worker is given a share of the tip, this should be paid on top of their wages.
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