The government has announced that the national
minimum wage will rise again in October of this year, by 3.8%. The
new rates will be as follows:
Workers aged 22 and over - £5.73 from £5.52
Workers aged between 18-21 - £4.77 from £4.60
Workers aged 16-17 - £3.53 from £3.40
Two thirds of the 1 million people that the government believes
this rise will benefit will be women.
The government has cracked down on rogue employers not in compliance
with the national minimum wage regulations and has pledged to
invest more into enforcing the rules. The penalty for paying
workers any amount below the national minimum wage is now an
unlimited fine.
Under the National Minimum Wage Act, criminal offences include;
refusal to or wilful neglect to pay the NMW, failure to keep
or preserve truthful and accurate records, refusal of access
to those records to an HMRC compliance officer, failure to produce
relevant documents when asked by an HMRC compliance officer.
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