NMWM07150 - Types of work: more than one job with the same employer

Relevant legislation

The legislation that applies to this page is as follows:

• National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, regulations 6, 7 & 9 to 16

A worker can do more than one job for his employer under one or more contracts. When a worker has more than one contract with his employer the type of work (NMWM07010) being performed and the length of the pay reference periods may be the same or different for each contract.

For example

A worker may have a contract to perform office work during the day and a separate contract to work for the same employer as a cleaner in the evenings. It is possible for the office job under the day time contract to be salaried hours work paid monthly (NMWM07020) and the work performed under the evening contract to be time work paid weekly (NMWM07040).

Because the definitions of the various types of work refer specifically to the contract being worked by the worker it is appropriate to treat each contract (and associated pay reference period, payment and time worked) separately for National Minimum Wage purposes.

It will be relatively straight forward to consider more than one contract if they are administered on a single payroll using a single payslip and have the same pay reference periods - but it will be more complicated if separate payrolls and pay reference periods are involved. Clearly, where the hourly rate for each contract is at least the National Minimum Wage no underpayment can occur.

However, if you encounter a case where:

• the worker has more than one contract with an employer and a possible underpayment of National Minimum Wage is identified for any of the contracts, and/or
• the worker is being provided with accommodation by the employer at any time during any of the employments, and/or
• it appears the employer has artificially divided one employment into separate contracts for whatever reason,

send a submission to the Operational Advisory Team for advice.