Excluded workers
[ch 4: page 84]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)