date: 3 April 2006

embargo: Embargo: 00.01hrs Tuesday 4 April 2006

Online minimum wage calculator to make life difficult for mean employers

Seven years on from the introduction of the national minimum wage, the TUC is today (Tuesday) launching an online calculator to make it more difficult for mean employers to break the law and continue to pay their staff illegal poverty wages.

Since April 1999, HM Revenue and Customs has recovered £21million from employers who have tried to cheat their low paid workers by paying them below the legal rate (currently the hourly adult rate is £5.05).

With three different rates of minimum wage, and deductions that employers can make if they are providing workers with paid-for accommodation, the TUC is concerned that some workers might be confused by the rules. The online calculator - accessible via workSMART, the TUC's world of work website www.worksmart.org.uk - is designed to help make life a little easier for low paid workers trying to get their heads around the detail of the minimum wage.

By answering a number of simple questions on age, training provided, type of job and hours worked, the workSMART calculator assesses how much an individual should be being paid for the time they put in at work.

Having entered their details online, workers who believe their employers are not paying them a legal wage are given a number of suggestions as to how they might go about securing the hourly wage to which they are entitled including having a chat with the boss, going to see the workplace union rep or calling the minimum wage helpline.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'With every annual increase in the minimum wage, around a million low paid workers go home with more in their pay packets. But seven years on, there are still some very mean bosses out there. Banking on their employees' ignorance of the law and of the minimum wage rules, cheating bosses think they can still get away with paying illegal poverty wages.

'But by helping workers understand more about the minimum wage and what it means to them, our calculator aims to shine the spotlight on the UK's miserly, penny-pinching, law-breaking bosses.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The adult minimum wage for workers aged 22 and over is currently £5.05 (£5.35 from October 2006); the development rate for workers aged 18-21 is £4.25 (£4.45 from October 2006) and the rate for 16 and 17 year olds is £3 (£3.30 from October 2006).

- The national minimum wage was introduced on 1 April 1999.

- HM Revenue and Cutsoms has recovered more than £21 million for low paid workers since 1999.

- The National Minimum Wage Helpline is 0845 6000 678.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet : a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (600 words) issued 4 Apr 2006