Minimum Wage

[Mark S]

A few companies getting some bad publicity this morning, including our very own St Helens.

 To quote Chris Rock

’I used to work at McDonald's making minimum wage. You know what that means when someone pays you minimum wage? You know what your boos was trying to say? "Hey if I could pay you less, I would, but it's against the law.’

[Saintslass]

Saints were under the impression that they didn't have to pay staff who had to attend training before starting work with Saints.  They claimed this was an error.  An error indeed.  Since when has it been legitimate not to pay staff for attending required training?  They were busted, and they deserved the fine they received.

[M j M]

It looks like Saints have been done for genuine underpayment but I have a lot of sympathy with Wagamama - it's something which is going to catch a load of restaurants/retailers. HMRC has essentially without warning changed an interpretation that was fine in the past and has then gone on a huge retrospective fishing expedition, claiming that companies asking staff to wear black trousers is a form of minimum wage breach (most companies have been well aware of the issues around actual/branded uniform items for a while but asking staff to wear trousers is something else).

If it had been clear before that would be one thing but this is clearly just an attempt to generate revenues.