How to check you are being paid correctly

Rates are set by age band and change on 1 April each year following recommendations from the Low Pay Commission. The National Living Wage applies from age 21; lower National Minimum Wage rates apply to 18 to 20-year-olds, to 16 and 17-year-olds, and to apprentices in the first year of an apprenticeship or under 19.

Your rate changes automatically on your birthday when you move into a higher band, and on 1 April when the rates rise. Employers frequently miss both, and a stale rate is one of the most common forms of underpayment.

There is no exception for probation periods, training periods, trial shifts of any meaningful length, or an employee who has agreed to work for less. The minimum cannot be contracted out of.

Use the GOV.UK minimum wage calculator, which checks whether a specific pay arrangement complies. It handles the awkward cases — salaried hours, output work, unmeasured work — better than dividing pay by hours yourself.

This is where most underpayment hides. Time you must be at the workplace counts as working time even if you are not serving customers: opening up, setting up, cashing up, mandatory briefings, security checks on leaving, and training you are required to attend.

Travel between assignments during the working day counts. Travel from home to a single fixed workplace does not.

Time spent on call at the workplace counts. Sleep-in shifts are a contested area where the law changed following Supreme Court litigation, and the position depends on whether you are working or merely available to work.

Deductions and payments that are for the employer's benefit reduce your pay for minimum wage purposes. If you must buy a uniform, pay for a required DBS check or a compulsory tool, and that pushes your effective rate below the minimum, that is unlawful — even if the deduction itself was agreed.

Accommodation provided by an employer has a specific daily offset that can count toward the minimum wage, but only up to a capped amount. Charging more than the offset for accommodation is a common source of underpayment in hospitality and agriculture.

You have a legal right to an itemised payslip on or before payday. It must show gross pay, the amounts and reasons for any variable deductions, net pay, and — where pay varies by hours worked — the number of hours being paid for.

Check the tax code. A code ending in W1, M1 or X is an emergency code and usually means you are overpaying. A BR code on your only job is wrong. Both are correctable through your personal tax account.

Check the pension line. Under auto-enrolment, most workers aged 22 to state pension age earning above a threshold must be enrolled into a workplace pension, with a minimum total contribution of which the employer must pay a minimum share. You can opt out, but you must be enrolled first — an employer who never enrolled you has breached a duty enforced by The Pensions Regulator.

Check holiday pay. Holiday pay must reflect normal remuneration, which for workers with variable pay includes regular overtime and commission, not just basic pay.

Deductions must be authorised by statute, by your contract, or by your prior written agreement. Deductions for till shortages, breakages or customer walkouts are unlawful for most workers, and even where a contract permits them, retail workers have a statutory cap of 10 per cent of gross pay per pay period.

Raise it in writing first, with your calculation attached. Many underpayments are genuine errors — a missed birthday rate change, an April uprating not applied — and are fixed at this stage.

Keep your own records regardless: a diary of start and finish times, rotas, photographs of the timesheet, and every payslip. Employers must keep minimum wage records, but where they have not, the absence tends to count against them rather than you.

Report minimum wage underpayment to HMRC. The complaint is free, can be made anonymously, and HMRC has power to require repayment of arrears plus a penalty payable to the government. It investigates whether or not you still work there.

For other pay disputes — unlawful deductions, unpaid holiday, unpaid notice — contact Acas on 0300 123 1100 for free advice, and note that Acas early conciliation is a mandatory step before most employment tribunal claims. The tribunal deadline is generally three months less one day from the deduction.

Detriment or dismissal for asserting a statutory right, including the right to the minimum wage, is automatically unfair regardless of length of service.