Compliance tools · Corporate governance, employment and financial

National Minimum Wage compliance tool

NMW Act 1998 (c. 39) · United Kingdom · Binding instrument

Name anyone on your staff. The system makes them your compliance person.

A member of your own staff, with no compliance background, reads the training module, answers the interview, and finishes with your National Minimum Wage documentation cited article by article. The knowledge stays in the business.

Every account level runs inside a dedicated Claude account. Anyone can try a toolkit in their own Claude account; compliance work runs in a dedicated one. The Claude Max plan is £90 a month, paid to Anthropic, and is not included in any level.

See a finished report before you pay

National Minimum Wage is NMW Act 1998 (c. 39), a binding instrument in the United Kingdom. Minimum wage rates, record keeping and HMRC enforcement including naming.

The free assessment screens for National Minimum Wage when a business employs staff.

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• Your exact position under National Minimum Wage: what is in place, what is missing, and what to do about each gap.
• Documentation with article citations, ready for auditors, insurers, customers and public buyers.
• A trained person inside the business who understands what the regulation requires, and stays.
• A dated record of every section completed, with the reports themselves staying in your own Claude account. The toolkit is carried by an account level, see the plans.
• All of it completed in-house, at your own pace, without booking a single meeting.

Check that National Minimum Wage applies to your business, free →

Does National Minimum Wage apply to my business?

You are caught if you employ a qualifying worker in the United Kingdom, meaning someone working under a contract of employment or any other contract to perform work or services personally, working or ordinarily working in the United Kingdom and past compulsory school age. Section 2(8) prohibits any differential treatment based on the size of your undertaking.

Who does National Minimum Wage apply to?

It applies to every employer of a qualifying worker, and the worker definition extends to agency workers (s.34), home workers (s.35), Crown employees (s.36), House of Lords and House of Commons staff, and mariners on UK-registered ships (s.40). Superior employers in employment chains are deemed employers jointly with the immediate employer under s.48.

Does National Minimum Wage apply to a small business?

No size threshold or small employer exemption exists. The Act applies to all employers regardless of size, and s.2(8) expressly prohibits the Secretary of State from making regulations that treat workers differently based on the size of the employer's undertaking.

When does National Minimum Wage apply from, and what are the deadlines?

The Act became operative on 1 April 1999 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 came into force on 6 April 2015. From 1 April 2026 the rates are £12.71 for age 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, £8.00 for under-18 and apprentices, and £11.10 daily accommodation offset.

What does National Minimum Wage require me to do?

Pay each qualifying worker at least the national minimum wage (s.1(1)), keep prescribed records (s.9), give a written NMW statement at or before each payment (s.12(1)-(2)), and pay additional remuneration where an underpayment is identified (s.17(1)). You may not contract out of the Act (s.49(1)).

What records or documents does National Minimum Wage require me to keep or produce?

Keep records in the prescribed form sufficient to establish NMW compliance (s.9 and reg.59(1)), produce them within 14 days of a worker's production notice (s.10(5)-(9)), and retain them for six years from the end of the pay reference period immediately following the period the records relate to (reg.59(8)).

What happens if I do not comply with National Minimum Wage?

Four criminal offences apply under s.31: refusing or wilfully neglecting to pay the NMW (s.31(1)), failing to keep or preserve records (s.31(2)), making a false entry (s.31(3)), and producing false records or information (s.31(4)). On indictment the fine is unlimited; on summary conviction it is up to the statutory maximum.

How do I start complying with National Minimum Wage?

The first practical step is to pay the national minimum wage to every qualifying worker, the foundational duty in s.1(1), and to keep records in the prescribed form sufficient to establish compliance under s.9 and reg.59(1).

Which ComplianceSME account includes the National Minimum Wage toolkit?

The National Minimum Wage agent toolkit is included from the Micro level.

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