Terms and conditions 




It is unlawful to discriminate over employment terms and conditions because of a protected characteristic. There are some exceptions, in particular: 




National Minimum Wage: The EA 10 allows employers to pay workers the National Minimum Wage (NMW) based on age-related pay bands without a claim for age discrimination. The government rationale for minimum wage age banding is that younger workers occupy a more vulnerable position in the labour market, with a greater need to acquire experience, and that if they were eligible for the full minimum wage, they would risk being priced out.
See Chapter 4 for information about the NMW.


Service-related benefits: The EA 10 contains an exception for length of service-related benefits to prevent claims for age discrimination:




• where the length of service to trigger a benefit is five years or less, the employer is exempt from a claim for age discrimination;




• where the length of service required exceeds five years, the employer is allowed to justify the benefit by showing a reasonable belief that the scheme fulfils a business need, such as encouraging motivation or loyalty, or rewarding experience.




Enhanced redundancy payments: It is not age discrimination to provide an enhanced redundancy payment scheme, as long as it mirrors the statutory scheme for redundancy pay. For more information, see Chapter 11: Redundancy pay.