Deductions, hours and complaints
Zero hours and agency workers: the same minimum, every hour
Enter one pay period: hours including briefings and travel between assignments, gross pay and any charge taken off. The checker shows whether you reached the rate.
Underpaid for this period by
£22.54
£12.04 an hour counted, against a minimum of £12.71
| Rate that applies | National Living Wage (21 and over) |
| Rates in force | April 2026 to March 2027 |
| Minimum for 34 hours | £432.14 |
| Pay that counts | £409.60 |
| Same pay from 1 April 2027 | £39.54 short (£13.21 an hour) |
Rule applied: National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, as HMRC explains them in its guidance on calculating the minimum wage. An estimate from what you enter, not a decision by HMRC or a tribunal.
A zero hours contract, casual work or a job through an agency does not lower the minimum wage. Every hour worked in a pay reference period must be paid at least the rate for your age: £12.71 at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20 and £8.00 at 16 and 17 from 1 April 2026. Because hours change from one period to the next, the check is made period by period on the hours you actually worked, which include time you are required to be at work and available, briefings, and travel from one assignment to the next. For agency work, the law treats you as having a worker's contract with whoever pays you, the agency or the client business, so one of them is always responsible. Take an agency worker aged 22 paid £12.80 for 32 shift hours, who must also attend 2 hours of unpaid briefings and has an £8 umbrella company fee passed on. The pay that counts is £401.60 for 34 hours, £11.81 an hour, and the week is £30.54 short.
Minimum pay for one pay period
Minimum for this period
£432.14
| Pay period | Weekly |
| Hours this pay covers at the minimum | 31.5 |
| Result | £30.54 short |
Rates and rules read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Same rate, checked one period at a time
The HMRC eligibility guidance includes part-time, short-term and casual workers in the definition of a worker, and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 adds a specific rule for agency staff. None of these arrangements has a lower rate. What changes is the way hours move: a zero hours worker may do 40 hours one week and 6 the next, so the employer has to check the pay for each pay reference period against the hours actually worked in it. A strong week does not cover a weak one when you are paid weekly.
Hours that are easy to lose
Variable hours workers are more likely to have unrecorded time. These periods count as working time for those paid by the hour:
- time at the workplace waiting to be given work, when you are required to be there;
- briefings, inductions and preparation you are told to attend;
- travel from one assignment to another during the day, as in home care or cleaning rounds;
- waiting for transport on a work journey, or to start a job or collect goods.
Waiting at home for a call, and the journey from home to the first job and back from the last, generally do not count. The working time page goes through each case, and the on-call page covers standby.
The agency worker's week, broken down
| Item | Hours | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Shift hours paid at £12.80 | 32 | £409.60 |
| Unpaid briefings the client requires | 2 | £0 |
| Umbrella company fee passed on | −£8 | |
| Pay that counts and hours that count | 34 | £401.60 |
| Minimum at 22, from April 2026 | £432.14 | |
| Shortfall | £30.54 |
The hourly rate on the assignment, £12.80, is above the £12.71 minimum, and without the extras the week would have been compliant. It is the unpaid time and the passed-on fee together that create the underpayment. From 1 April 2027 the announced rate of £13.21 would put even the basic assignment rate below the floor, once regulations bring it into force.
Agency, client or umbrella: who is responsible
Under section 34 of the Act, an agency worker is deemed to have a worker's contract with whichever party pays them. That closes the gap that could otherwise open between an agency and the business using the worker. Two further points protect agency staff:
- separate rules on employment businesses require the agency to pay for hours worked even when the client has not paid the agency, enforced by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate;
- a charge an agency or umbrella company imposes on the business that pays you cannot be passed on to you without lowering your minimum wage pay, as the HMRC calculation guidance explains.
HMRC officers can also enter the premises of businesses that supply and employ agency workers to inspect records.
Timesheets and late pay
Where you must submit a timesheet before being paid, the hours count for the pay period in which you worked them, and must be paid in that period or the next. If the timesheet arrives late, meaning fewer than 4 working days before the end of the period after the one in which you worked, the employer has until the end of the following period to pay. Keep a copy of every timesheet you submit.
Gig work through an app
Platform workers are entitled only if they are workers rather than genuinely self-employed. Where they are, HMRC lists as likely working time the hours the platform requires you to be logged in, time you must spend in a set area, travel to a pickup point after accepting a job, and waiting for an order or a customer. Each app is assessed separately. The eligibility page explains how status is decided.