National minimum wage meaning

The early conciliation (EC) requirement The early conciliation (EC) requirement—sometimes referred to as mandatory Acas early conciliation—obliges a would‑be claimant to give Acas specified details, including certain information, before issuing an employment tribunal claim, as provided by section 18A(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 (ETA 1996). For more detail, see Practice Note: The early conciliation requirement. This Checklist explains which claims constitute ‘relevant proceedings’, and identifies those that are caught by the early conciliation requirement either because of: ETA 1996, s 18(1A), or a specific provision in the applicable legislation For guidance on relevant proceedings, see Practice Note: The early conciliation requirement—Relevant proceedings. Where a prospective claimant satisfies the early conciliation requirement, there is, in almost all cases, a statutory extension to the usual deadline within which a claim must be presented to an employment tribunal. This Checklist also indicates where the operative extension provisions on time limits are located, and highlights categories of proceedings to which those extension provisions...

Contracting-out provisions Most claims pursued in the employment tribunal arise from a jurisdiction conferred by statutory measures. Each such statutory scheme typically includes a clause preventing the parties (or prospective parties) to a tribunal dispute from concluding an arrangement that purports to settle the claim and, by doing so, purports to displace the employment tribunal’s authority to decide the dispute. These clauses are commonly known as 'contracting-out provisions', and they appear, in broadly similar terms, across a wide range of employment legislation, eg the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992) and the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010). The aim of these provisions is to protect claimants (or potential claimants) by ensuring they do not sign away the right to commence or continue a claim without appropriate safeguards being observed. The fundamental position is that any agreement reached between persons which purports to stop an individual from making, or proceeding with, a claim to an employment tribunal is void...

ARCHIVED: This Checklist has been archived and is not maintained. In broad terms, this computation focuses on real cash movements and payments between the employer and the worker (in both directions) rather than on entitlements. For more detail on the components of this calculation, refer to Practice Note: National minimum wage, especially the section titled: Checking pay against the minimum. For a checklist outlining the key points to consider when deciding whether someone is entitled to receive and does receive the minimum wage, see: Minimum wage compliance checklist...

In this issue Working time and flexible working Pay Tax Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Employment tribunal equality claims Diversity and gender pay gap Industrial action Unfair dismissal Employment tribunals Immigration Northern Ireland ESG and sustainability: employment issues Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Working time and flexible working Code of Practice (Requests for Flexible Working) Order 2024 (SI 2024/429): The Order designates 6 April 2024 as the date on which the updated Code of Practice on handling requests for flexible working, issued by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) under section 199 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992), takes effect. It also clarifies that the revised Code does not cover applications for flexible working made under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) that are lodged on or before 5 April 2024;...

In this issue: Horizon scanning Recruitment Public sector Pay Tax Protected characteristics Equality of terms (equal pay) Whistleblowing Employee duties and restrictions on competition Unfair dismissal Employment Tribunals Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Employment resources on Lexis+® LexTalk®Employment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Horizon scanning Government U-turns on day-one unfair dismissal rights and announces compensation cap ‘will be lifted’ On 27 November 2025, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) confirmed that, following a round of ‘constructive conversations’ with trade unions and business representatives, the discussions settled on a ‘workable package’: shortening the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months, while preserving existing day-one protection against discrimination and for automatically unfair reasons for dismissal. To reinforce these safeguards, the government further pledged that any alteration to the unfair dismissal qualifying period will only be possible through primary legislation,...

In this issue: Maternity, parents and carers Tax Employment tribunals Immigration Daily and weekly news alerts IRLR Highlights—May 2024 Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Maternity, parents and carers The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has updated its workplace guidance on pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Revisions have been made across the toolkits to align with changes that took effect in April 2024. See: LNB News 05/04/2024 73. Tax HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued the March 2024 Employer Bulletin. This edition outlines measures announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, in the Spring Budget, including adjustments to the High Income Child Benefit Charge, a new National Insurance Contributions rate from 6 April 2024, and increases to the annual national minimum wage rate. See: LNB News 05/04/2024 19...

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Agricultural Minimum Wage rates are ordinarily reviewed each year by the Agricultural Advisory Panel for Wales (the Panel). As the recruitment of a new Chair is still underway, the Panel has not been able to finalise an Agricultural Wages Order for 2026. Accordingly, from 1 April 2026 the rates set out in the Agricultural Wages (Wales) Order 2025, SI 2025/293, will continue to apply, except where superseded by changes to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or National Living Wage (NLW). This Practice Note will be updated to reflect any amendments introduced by the Agricultural Wages Order for 2026 once it is made. FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Relevant provisions (not yet in force) of the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 will create a new scheme of apprenticeships in Wales, replacing the current regime under Chapter 1 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (ASCLA 2009), from a date yet to be determined. This Practice Note is a guide to the key elements of employment...

This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews employment law matters that can emerge in connection with volunteers and voluntary workers engaged in voluntary or charitable activity. It covers how volunteers are recruited (notably criminal record vetting and immigration considerations), arrangements made with volunteers, the national minimum wage, equality and banned conduct, data protection, and health and safety. In broad terms, a person is regarded as a volunteer where they are free from any duty to work but choose to carry out tasks without remuneration. In the absence of consideration, no binding contract can exist (whether of employment or worker status). That said, volunteers may have out-of-pocket expenses properly repaid without jeopardising their volunteer status. A volunteer may generally arrive and leave at their own discretion. Because volunteer positions are frequently loosely defined, if any form of consideration is identified, the role performed by the individual for the organisation may in fact amount to that of a ‘worker’ or an ‘employee’, thereby conferring statutory employment protections. In February 2026, the...

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006), SI 2006/246 On a relevant transfer, TUPE 2006 effects a statutory novation of transferring employees’ contracts: the transferee steps into the transferor’s shoes. This Practice Note outlines the rights, powers, duties and liabilities that pass, and treats the transferor’s acts or omissions as those of the transferee in relation to transferring staff. For fuller guidance on: what amounts to a relevant transfer under TUPE 2006, see Practice Notes: TUPE—business transfers and TUPE—service provision changes who counts as transferring employees, see Practice Note: TUPE—transfer of employees the duty to inform and consult about a relevant transfer, see Practice Note: TUPE—information and consultation how TUPE 2006 protects transferring staff against contractual variations and dismissal, see Practice Notes: TUPE—variation of contract terms and TUPE—protection against dismissal For a checklist of employment-related liabilities that arise on a relevant transfer under TUPE 2006, and whether they pass from transferor to transferee, see: What...

To: [ insert name of worker ] From: [ insert name of employer ] This notice informs you that, to comply with national minimum wage legislation, you will be regarded as working for a set period while performing [ insert brief description of piece produced or task performed, eg knitting jumpers, stuffing envelopes, delivering newspapers etc ] during the next and subsequent [ insert type of applicable pay reference period, eg days, weeks or months ]. To determine the length of time for which you will be treated as working, [ insert name of employer ] has [ conducted a test of OR estimated ] the typical speed at which [ its ] workers carrying out the same role work. The average hourly output rate for this job is [ insert number ] per hour. You will be paid at a rate of £[ insert amount ] per [ insert type of item, eg jumper, envelope, newspaper ]. The Acas helpline number for...

This Agreement is entered into on [ insert date ] Parties 1 [ Insert name of employer ], with its registered office at [ insert address ], company registration number [ enter number ] (‘Employer’); and 2 [ Insert name of worker ] of [ insert address ] (‘you’). Background (A) The Employer employs you pursuant to your Contract. (B) Under your Contract, the duties you perform constitute unmeasured work for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Regulations. (C) This Agreement is a daily average agreement as envisaged by Regulations 49 and 50 of the National Minimum Wage Regulations. (D) You and the Employer acknowledge that Average Daily Hours are an approximation of Realistic Average Daily Hours...

To: [ enter employer’s name & address ] Date: Dear [ enter organisation name ] I consider that I [ am being OR might be being OR have...

For further information on this topic in general, see: National minimum wage—Eligibility Employment-related statutory rates and limits table Minimum wage compliance checklist Deductions from wages Some of the statutory exceptions to the right to receive the national minimum wage are outlined below. This response concentrates on the scenarios where the point most commonly arises. Workers only Only ‘workers’ are entitled to be paid the national minimum wage—see our Practice Note: Worker status—Definition of ‘worker’. Agency workers who would otherwise fall outside the definition of a ‘worker’ because they have no contract with either the supplier or the recipient of their services are nevertheless entitled to the national minimum wage. Home workers who might not otherwise be ‘workers’ owing to an absence of any personal obligation in the contract to carry out the work themselves are likewise entitled to be paid the national minimum wage. The genuinely self-employed are not entitled to be paid the national minimum...

The approach an employer should take to confirm whether the sums it pays a worker comply with the national minimum wage requirements is explained, in particular, within the relevant section of the Practice Note: National minimum wage entitled National minimum wage — Checking pay against the minimum...

An apprentice qualifies for the lower apprentice rate of the national minimum wage (NMW) (currently £3.50 per hour) This entitlement applies where the individual is a worker who either: Is employed under: A contract of apprenticeship An apprenticeship agreement (as defined by section 32 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (ASCLA 2009), since repealed but subject to transitional and saving provisions) An approved English apprenticeship agreement (as described in ASCLA 2009, s A1(3)) Or is regarded as employed under a contract of apprenticeship by virtue of taking part in one of these government schemes: England: Apprenticeships, Advanced Apprenticeships, Intermediate Level Apprenticeships, Advanced Level Apprenticeships, or Trailblazer Apprenticeships Scotland: Modern Apprenticeships Northern Ireland: Apprenticeships NI Wales: Foundation Apprenticeships, Apprenticeships, or Higher Apprenticeships Where any of the above apply, the worker meets the conditions for the...