New Minimum Wage and Existing Employees

Are you an existing employee on the old Minimum Wage rate? Has your employer attempted to lower your hourly rate from E8.65 to the new national minimum wage of E7.65?

In some cases your employment contract or terms of employment will say that you are paid at the
“prevailing National Minimum Wage hourly rate”. Where this is the case, an employer may reduce your
pay in line with the minimum wage rates. In other cases there may be a provision in the contract that
provides for a reduction in pay.

Where this is not the case, and you are on the previous minimum rate of €8.65 per hour, your employer
cannot reduce it without your agreement, as this would change the terms of your contract of employment.

Find out more on the National Employment Rights Authority Website.

Payroll

Minimum Wage Exemption

If an employer cannot afford to pay the national minimum wage due to financial difficulty the Labour Court may exempt an employer from paying the minimum wage rate for between 3 months and 1 year. Only 1 such exemption can be allowed. The employer must apply to the Labour Court for the exemption with the consent of a majority of the employees, who must also agree to be bound by the Labour Court decision.

The employer must demonstrate that he/she is unable to pay the national minimum wage and that, if compelled to do so, would have to lay-off employees or terminate their employment.

For full details on the Minimum wage, you can download the Minimum Wage Act by clicking Here

If you have any comments or queries please use the comments or email link below or visit our website @ http://www.cops.ie/

Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage Act 2000 provides that the minimum wage rate for an experienced adult employee from 1 July 2007 is €8.65 an hour, (was €8.30). An experienced adult for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Act is an employee who has an employment of any kind in any 2 years over the age of 18.

There are some exceptions to those entitled to receive the national minimum wage. The legislation does not apply to a person employed by a close relative (for example, a spouse or parent) nor does it apply to those in statutory apprenticeships. Also some employees such as young people under 18 and trainees are only guaranteed a reduced or sub-minimum rate of the national minimum wage.

The National Minimum Wage Act provides the following sub-minimum rates:

-An employee who is under 18 is entitled to €6.06 per hour (this is 70% of the minimum wage)
-An employee who is in the first year of employment since the age of 18 is entitled to €6.92 per hour (80% of minimum wage)
-An employee who is in the second year of employment since the date of first employment over the age of 18 is entitled to €7.79 per hour (90% of the minimum wage)

Minimum Wage - What does not count as Pay!

There are a number of items that are not to be included in the minimum wage calculation, these are:

-Overtime premium
-Call-out premium
-Service pay
-Unsocial hours premium
-Tips which are placed in a central fund managed by the employer and paid as part of your wages
-Premiums for working public holidays, Saturdays or Sundays
-Allowances for special or additional duties
-On-call or standby allowances
-Certain payments in relation to absences from work, for example, sick pay or holiday pay
-Payment connected with leaving the employment including retirement
-Redundancy payments
-Loan by the employer to you