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National Minimum Wage, the National Living Wage and your payslip

7 minute read · Updated 2026-08-20

The National Minimum Wage is the legal floor for almost everyone who works in the UK, and it is enforced by HMRC rather than left to you and your employer to sort out between yourselves. Despite that, underpayment is common, usually not because an employer sets a low hourly rate but because of unpaid time, deductions and travel that quietly push the real rate below the limit. This guide explains who is covered, what your payslip must show, and what to do if the figures do not add up.

Who gets the National Minimum Wage

Workers and employees of school leaving age and above are entitled to it. That includes part time staff, agency workers, casual and zero hours staff, apprentices, and most people paid through an umbrella company. The rate depends on your age, with a higher rate, the National Living Wage, applying from a set age upwards, and a separate lower rate for apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship or under a certain age.

The rates change every April and are set by the government on advice from the Low Pay Commission, so always check the current figures on GOV.UK rather than relying on what you were told last year. Your rate should also increase automatically when you move into a new age band.

Genuinely self employed people are not covered, but labelling someone self employed does not make them so. If you are told when, where and how to work, cannot send a substitute and are integrated into the business, you may well be a worker with full minimum wage rights whatever the contract says. The same applies to some people paid on a day rate through an intermediary.

The things that quietly make pay unlawful

Minimum wage is calculated across a pay reference period, so unpaid working time drags the average down. Watch for these:

  • Travel between assignments during the working day, for example between care calls, which counts as working time even though travel from home to your first job does not.
  • Time spent on handovers, opening and closing up, security searches at the end of a shift, or waiting on site to be given work.
  • Compulsory training, including online modules expected to be done at home.
  • Deductions for a uniform, tools, equipment or safety boots that the employer requires, where they take your pay below the minimum.
  • Accommodation provided by the employer, which is subject to a specific offset limit.
  • Unpaid trial shifts. A short observed trial as part of recruitment may be lawful, but working a full productive shift usually is not.
  • Tips and service charges, which cannot be used to make up the minimum wage, and which have their own rules on fair allocation.

If you work through an umbrella company, read the reconciliation statement carefully. The assignment rate paid by the agency is not your gross pay: the umbrella's margin, employer National Insurance and the apprenticeship levy usually come out of it first. That is lawful when it is properly explained, but your own gross pay must still meet the minimum wage and you must still receive holiday pay.

What your payslip must show

Employees and workers are entitled to an itemised pay statement on or before payday. It must show your gross pay, the amounts and reasons for any variable deductions such as tax and National Insurance, any fixed deductions (or a separate standing statement of them), and your net pay. Where your pay varies with the hours you work, the payslip must also show the number of hours paid.

Check it every month rather than once a year. Look at the hours against your own record, the tax code, the pension contribution, and any deduction you did not agree to. Deductions from wages are generally unlawful unless they are required by law, allowed by your contract, or you have agreed to them in writing in advance.

What to do if you have been underpaid

  1. Keep your own record of hours worked, including travel between jobs and any unpaid time. Your notes are evidence.
  2. Raise it informally with your manager or payroll first. Many underpayments are genuine errors in a rota system.
  3. If that fails, put it in writing as a formal grievance and keep a copy.
  4. Get advice from ACAS, or from your union if you are a member.
  5. You can report an employer to HMRC, including anonymously. HMRC can require arrears to be paid to workers and can issue a penalty, and employers can be named publicly.
  6. An unlawful deduction from wages claim can be brought at an employment tribunal, but strict time limits apply, generally three months less one day, and you must contact ACAS for early conciliation first.

You are protected from being treated badly for asserting a statutory right, and a dismissal for doing so can be automatically unfair regardless of your length of service. If you are also owed holiday pay or sick pay, our guide to holiday entitlement and sick pay explains how those are calculated, and notice periods and references covers what should appear in a final payslip when you leave.

Next step: check your last three payslips against your own record of hours, and if the job is not paying what it should, compare it with what similar roles are advertised at in our current vacancies.