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;

• prisoners;

• work experience students (as long as the work experience lasts less than a year);

• some government training programmes and pre-apprenticeship training courses;

• students on sandwich courses; members of the armed forces; and schoolchildren aged under 16.

Work under a government traineeship does not qualify for the NMW. A traineeship is a skills programme that lasts a maximum of six months. These programmes are aimed at unskilled young workers aged 16-24. Those in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance will be paid their JSA while on the programme (National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2014)