With a few exceptions, all workers in the UK aged 16 or over are legally entitled to be paid a minimum amount per hour. This is regardless of the kind of work they do or the size and type of company. The rate is reviewed every year, and any increases take place in October.

Who can get the National Minimum Wage?
Almost everyone who works in the UK is legally entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage. This is the case even if an employer asks a worker to sign an employment contract at a lower rate of pay. It isn't necessary to be in full-time employment, or to work at an employer's premises. For example, you're entitled to receive the minimum wage if you're:

• employed by an agency
• a homeworker
• a part-time worker
• a casual worker
• a pieceworker
• a worker on a short-term contract

• a worker under school leaving age
• genuinely self-employed
• some apprentices
• an au pair
• in the armed services
• a voluntary worker

New National Minimum Wage rates from 1 October 2008

The rates from 1 October 2008 are:

• adults (which means people aged 22 and over), £5.73 an hour
• workers aged 18-21, £4.77 an hour - the 'development rate'
• young people (those older than school-leaving age and younger than 18; you're under school-leaving age until the end of summer term of the school year in which you turn 16), £3.53 an hour