Excluded workers 


Some groups of workers are excluded from the right to the national minimum wage. These include:


• the genuinely self-employed; 


• share fishermen; 


• genuine volunteers, and voluntary workers with a contract to work for expenses only for a voluntary organisation; 


• family members and au pairs who are treated as one of the family;


• company directors; 


• prisoners; 


• higher and further education students on a work placement or “sandwich” course, as long as it lasts less than a year; 


• workers on a government employment programme, e.g. the “Work Programme”; 


• workers on a Job Centre Plus work trial for up to six months (aimed at unskilled young workers aged 16 – 24); 


• workers on government pre-apprenticeship training courses; 


• members of the armed forces; and 


• schoolchildren aged under 16.