Reply to: Minimum wage

[AtW]

My first job in UK IT was for £7 ph, and I was well chuffed at the time...

At the time (2000) I was looking at house prices and vividly remember that very nice house would cost something like £150-200k, so I decided to buy one when our .COM will float in just few months and I become millionaire...

[thunderlizard]

Oh. Just saw that _V_ said the same thing a few posts ago. I sometimes miss the good stuff while 'Page Down'-ing at high speed through the banter.

Minimum wage is now more than my first ever contract rate was!

[AtW]

And most certainly they have minimum sales levels failure to achieve which would result in a termination. This ensures that Crapware Ltd will not be actually paying salary - only commission.

[thunderlizard]

National Minimum Wage

I can answer your question Dim Prawn. It's the least I can do after you pointed me in the direction of Oracle SQL Developer which is doing its job nicely.

You need to pay your employees at least the national minimum wage. Of course if they aren't your employees but a subcontracting sales agency for instance, or self employed, it's not your responsibility.

But back to employees. NMW is now £5.35/hour. If their basic wage is below NMW, and they're expected to earn commission to bring them above it, then you have to top up their earnings to at least the NMW level. For instance you can expect your chimney-sweeps to work a 40 hour week, and pay them £150/week basic plus £10 per chimney. But if one of them only sweeps 5 chimneys, bringing his earnings to £200, you need to bung him an extra £14 to bring him up to the legal minimum of (£5.35 * 40 = £214).

[Dundeegeorge]

I am surprised

I just leave it on the doorstep, they pick it up, go away and don't often return.
Why would you be talking (down) to them?

[mcquiggd]

I didn't have you down as vindictive.
Bear in mind that people who do these things probably have to pay for their brochures/flyers etc. and I doubt they're coining it, so deliberately destroying their material is a little mean. And more effort than just leaving it outside your door as soon as it comes through, which is what I do.

Because they don't take no for an answer. The only way to stop them is to cost them money, as that is all they care about.

[Dundeegeorge]

I'm surprised at that McQ

I didn't have you down as vindictive.
Bear in mind that people who do these things probably have to pay for their brochures/flyers etc. and I doubt they're coining it, so deliberately destroying their material is a little mean. And more effort than just leaving it outside your door as soon as it comes through, which is what I do.

[mcquiggd]

Just cut the catalogue in half and leave it ooutside your door on the day they are going to come and hassle you. After 5 or 6 tries, they eventually get the message.

[DimPrawn]

what’s in it for me?
with unlimited earnings and exciting incentives, your dream job could earn you a fortune!

be your own boss
the sky's the limit when you create your own business as a Representative or you can join us as a
self-employed Avon Sales Leader, managing a team of Representatives and earning commission on their sales.

do it your way as a Sales Leader
and turn your dream into reality. If you want unlimited earnings, flexible hours and to be your own boss, read on…

These people are not employees.

Well I hope the old lady who stuffs the Betterware catalogue through my door is running her Limited company correctly, paying her corp tax or self employed and paying Schedule E taxes by filing her quarterly returns etc and not ripping off El Gordo or bypassing NMW by being a "disguised" employee of Betterware.

Not.

[AtW]

The stupid is right - for a change.

I am not suprised because I have observed similar pattern in the past.

Keep it up dundee.

[Dundeegeorge]

Taken from a well-known cosmetic's manufacturer's site

what’s in it for me?
with unlimited earnings and exciting incentives, your dream job could earn you a fortune!

be your own boss
the sky's the limit when you create your own business as a Representative or you can join us as a
self-employed Avon Sales Leader, managing a team of Representatives and earning commission on their sales.

do it your way as a Sales Leader
and turn your dream into reality. If you want unlimited earnings, flexible hours and to be your own boss, read on…

These people are not employees.

[AtW]

It is likely that the only time they are considered "working" is when they collect money and deliver sold goods, which results in a commission thus covering min wage legislation. At other time however they are probably volunteers who do whatever they want in their own spare time, and they just happen to be able to receive promotional material from local dealer.

[_V_]

Commissioned based salaries: National Minimum Wage legislation also applies to commission workers, who qualify for a minimum wage of £5.05 per hour.

An example of how this should be applied in practice is given below:

An employee is paid a commission salary based on sales. If in a particular week he/she works for 20 hours and achieves 2 sales earning a commission of £60 per sale, he/she will have earnt £120 for 20 hours worked which equates to a rate of £6 per hour and so meets NMW requirements.

If, however, he/she works for 20 hours and achieves just 1 sale earning a commission of £60 per sale, he/she will have earnt just £60 for 20 hours worked which equates to a rate of £3 per hour which does not meet NMW requirements. In this case the employer MUST top up his commission by £41 to ensure that he/she has received the NMW for the 20 hours worked.

Similarly if he/she works 20 hours and achieves no sale the employer MUST pay for the 20 hours at £5.05 per hour with total pay being £101 for the 20 hours worked.

HTH

PS. As you can see this New Lie legislation makes it easy to run any business in the UK

[Dundeegeorge]

For goodness' sake it's not difficult

Okay Dundee.

Great answer. That explains it all.

All any employer has to do is switch to peice work, call his staff "commissioned agents" and pay less than NMW and he's sooortteeeeeeed

Dreary me, this site really has become a playground for the boring and stupid.

Piece-work implies an employee-employer relationship, and that would incur a minimum wage.
Sub-contracted work or commission on sales carries no such implication.

[DimPrawn]

Okay Dundee.

Great answer. That explains it all.

All any employer has to do is switch to peice work, call his staff "commissioned agents" and pay less than NMW and he's sooortteeeeeeed

Dreary me, this site really has become a playground for the boring and stupid.