Paid by the hour

Workers paid according to the number of hours they are at work are classed as doing ‘time work’.

For these workers, the average hourly pay has to be at least the National Minimum Wage, worked out over the period each pay packet covers. For example, if a worker gets paid once a month, this period will be 1 month.

Example

Workers in a call centre are paid for the number of hours they work each month.

Alan works in the call centre. He is 20 and is eligible for the National Minimum Wage rate of £10.00. He works a total of 140 hours during the month of January.

This means he must be paid at least £1,400 for this month’s work (£10.00 multiplied by 140).

Use the National Minimum Wage calculator to check if payments are at least at the minimum wage.

  1. Step 1 Check this process is right for you

    Follow these steps if you're taking on someone with the employment status of 'employee'.

    1. Check who counts as an employee

    There are other steps you may need to take first if you have not employed someone before.

    1. Get ready to employ someone for the first time

    The rules are different if you want to take on someone with another type of employment status, such as agency staff, freelancers, consultants and contractors.

    1. Check your responsibilities when you take on someone with a different employment status and contract type
  2. Step 2 Recruit someone

    You need to advertise the role and interview candidates. You can use a recruitment agency to do this or do it yourself.

    1. Find out about recruiting someone yourself on Acas

    As an employer you must make sure you recruit employees fairly.

    1. Avoid discrimination during recruitment
    2. Make your application process accessible for employees with disabilities or health conditions
  3. and Check they have the right to work in the UK

  4. and Find out which DBS check is right for your employee

    You may need to check if someone has a criminal record, for example, if they'll be working in healthcare or with children. This is known as a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

    1. Find out which DBS check is right for your employee
    2. How to do a DBS check
  5. Step 3 Check if they need to be put into a workplace pension

  6. Step 4 Agree a contract and salary

  7. Step 5 Tell HMRC about your new employee