Guidance

Guidance notes for workers about National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage — NMW FS4

Updated 3 May 2024

We’ve given you this factsheet because we’re checking whether your employer has paid at least the correct rate of National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) to you and other workers.

NMW is the minimum legal amount employers must pay their workers. Employers are responsible for making sure their workers are paid at least NMW rates and must keep records to prove they’ve done this. The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 which includes National Living Wage from 1 April 2016 allows us to enforce payment of NMW and NLW. Where this factsheet refers to NMW, this also includes the National Living Wage.

Our role

We’re carrying out a check into your employer and as part of this check we’ll talk to you and other workers.

The legislation that covers what we do is the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. Under this legislation we can speak to employers, training providers or workers, where reasonable, to get the information we need to decide if workers have been paid at least NMW. We can ask for:

• information we think will show whether someone is a worker and if they are being paid at least NMW
• explanations of anything contained within employer’s records
• more information we need to work out whether the correct rate of NMW has been paid
• information about working patterns and arrangements for payment
• information to gain a better understanding of the background and operation of the employer’s business

If you need help

If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with this check, please tell the officer who contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can. Find out how to get help from HMRC if you need extra support.

You can ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf, for example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. We may however still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.

What we’ll do

We’ll carry out our check by gathering all the relevant information we need to help us to check if you’re entitled to NMW and if so, whether your employer has paid you the right amount.

We may need to ask you for information to help us understand the NMW position. We may also ask you for copies of any documents you have which will help us to understand the NMW position such as payslips or timesheets.

You may receive a follow up call from us. If you’re unsure if this is a genuine contact from HMRC, check our list of genuine contacts and read the section ‘contact by letter email or phone’.

We’ll contact and interview your employer and ask them for their records showing the number of hours you’ve worked and the wage that you’ve been paid.

We can only talk to you about your own matters and cannot talk to you about any other workers.

During the check we’ll tell you about the progress that we make. We’ll look at all the information that we get and then make our decision. If we find that you have not been paid the right amount, we’ll work out the amount that you’re owed and send a notice of underpayment to your employer. This notice tells your employer that they must make a payment to the employee of the amount that is owed. We’ll write to tell you when this notice has been sent to your employer.

What we need from you

During this check we may need to get in touch with you, so please make sure that you let us know if you change your name, postal address, email address or phone number.

If you’re still employed, it would help us if you could keep a record of the hours you’ve worked to show to us. If we ask you to send us copies of any payslips or your contract of employment, please do so.

If you need to write to us, please make sure that you quote the CFS reference number on the attached letter.

Please let the officer who is dealing with your case know if your employer pays you any of the amount that you are owed.

Authorising someone to speak on your behalf

If you want to appoint an adviser to act on your behalf, you’ll need to send us a form 64-8 ‘Authorising your agent’. You can fill form 64-8 online.

If you prefer, you can phone the officer that wrote to you for a copy. You’ll find their phone number in the letter that they sent to you.

Your rights and obligations

The HMRC Charter explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you. For more information, read the HMRC Charter.

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you. For more information, read the HMRC Privacy Notice.