Update sheet for all leaflets
The following sections update those in the “Working in the United
Kingdom” leaflets for Portugal and Lithuania:
National Minimum Wage
All workers
aged 16 years or over, who have left school, are entitled to the National
Minimum Wage (NMW). If you are 16 or 17 years old you must receive at least
£3 an hour. If you are 18, 19, 20 or 21 years old you must receive at least
£4.10 an hour and if you are aged 22 or over you must receive at least £4.85 an
hour. The last two rates will be
increased to £4.25 and £5.05 respectively on 1 October 2005.
Agricultural Minimum Wage
If you are
hired to do manual harvesting work you are entitled to the Agricultural
Minimum Wage. In England and Wales you must be paid at least £4.85 an hour
if you are 19 years old or older. If you do other agricultural work you must be
paid at least £5.40 an hour. If you work more than 39 hours a week on a farm,
you are entitled to overtime pay which is one and a half times your basic hourly
wage.
All the hourly rates above are revised from time to time.
Different rates of Agricultural Minimum Wage apply in Scotland and Northern
Ireland. If you are in doubt, ring the contact numbers listed at the end of
this leaflet.
Deductions from Wages
Employers can only make
deductions from your wages if; they are required by law, i.e. for income tax and
national insurance; they are allowed by law and part of your contract with your
employer, or; you have agreed in writing beforehand to the deductions being
made. Examples of deductions which you can expect your employer to make
include:
1. Tax and National
Insurance
In almost all cases it is a
requirement that your employer deducts money from your wages for Income Tax and
National Insurance contributions. See below [the full leaflet] for details.
2. Accommodation
Where
your employer provides living accommodation, there is a limit to the amount that
can be counted as part of your pay when checking whether you have been paid the
National Minimum Wage. This limit is £3.75 (rising to £3.90 in October 2005)
for each day that accommodation is provided.
If
accommodation is instead provided by another person or business, this limit may
not apply. Before entering any agreement, you should ask what accommodation
will be provided, who is providing it and the amount to be deducted from your
pay.
3.
Agriculture
If you
work in agriculture you will be covered by the agricultural minimum wage. If
your employer provides living accommodation, the accommodation limit rules (see
above) apply in a similar way.
You must
still be paid the Agricultural Minimum Wage after any money has been deducted
from your wages for transport.
A
temporary work agency cannot deduct from your pay or otherwise attempt to charge
you for processing your pay or providing safety equipment. The agency may offer
to provide you with other services, for example training in additional skills,
for which there is a charge. However it cannot make the provision of its work
finding services conditional on you using those other services.
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