Minimum wage - Employee pay and benefits

	Aged 22 and over	Aged 18 - 21	Aged 16 - 17
Up to October 2005	£4.85	£4.10	£3.00
From October 2005	£5.05	£4.25	£3.00
From October 2006	£5.35	£4.45	£3.30

Most adult workers in the United Kingdom must be paid at least the national minimum wage. If they have a contract of employment they are a worker. Even if they do not have a contract of employment, they are a worker if they are doing work personally for someone else (under a “worker’s” contract) and they are not genuinely self-employed. The contract does not need to be written; it may be an implied contract or an oral contract. People such as home workers, agency workers, casual labourers, part-time workers and workers on short-term contracts are all entitled to the national minimum wage. It does not matter how a worker is paid – by the month, week, day, session, hour or some other way.

The main exceptions are:

The self employed
Company Directors
Workers aged under 18
Students who are placed with and employer as part of their course
Apprentices or to employees on government training schemes who are under the age of 19.
Apprentices under 26 in the first year of their training.
Workers living as part of a family (e.g. au pairs, nannies)
Voluntary Workers.