NMWM08132 - Working time: salaried hours work: excess hours calculation in pay reference period where basic hours first exceeded: weekly example

Calculation where basic hours first exceeded

Before the four-step calculation can be made it is first necessary to identify the point in the pay reference period when the basic hours were first exceeded (NMWM08130).

Example: calculation in pay reference period where basic hours first exceeded

A weekly paid worker performing salaried hours work has a calculation year from 7 January 2019 to 6 January 2020 with 2080 basic hours (resulting in 52 weeks of 40 hours being treated as worked in each pay reference period).

By 24 December the worker exceeds the basic hours by working more cumulative hours than the basic annual hours in the calculation year. The 40 hours originally treated as worked is no longer representative of working time because the annual basic hours have been exceeded during the pay reference period. Additional hours therefore need to be taken into consideration.

Step 1. Calculate the proportion of basic hours falling BEFORE the basic hours are exceeded, 23 December (1 day);

2080 x 1 = 5.7 hours
365

On completion of this calculation, any absences during the pay reference period which formed part of the basic hours but where less than the normal salary was paid must be subtracted from the final result.

Step 2. Calculate the proportion of basic hours falling AFTER the basic hours are exceeded - 24 December to 29 December (6 days);

2080 x 6 = 34.19 hours
365

Step 3. Identify the actual hours worked and treated as being worked in the pay reference period after the basic hours were exceeded.

In this case, this is 3 hours on 24 December and 8 hours each on 25, 26 and 27 February, totalling 27 hours.

Step 4. Add together the results of steps 1, 2 and 3 to give the adjusted number of hours to be treated as worked in the week 23 December to 28 December: 66.89 (5.7 + 34.19 + 27).

This means that as a consequence of the excess hours the employer must increase the number of hours treated as worked for National Minimum Wage purposes from 40 to 66.89 hours.

If further work is performed in the remaining pay reference periods of the calculation year additional adjustments will be required for those pay reference periods (NMWM08140).

Expanded form of this calculation (Excel 33k).