Excluded workers 



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


• the genuinely self-employed (see Chapter 2); 



• 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.