- Statutory minimum holiday of 5.6 weeks a year including bank holidays, capped at 28 days and pro-rated for part-time
- Statutory Sick Pay from the first full qualifying day of absence since 6 April 2026, with your own scheme allowed to be more generous but never less
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage by age band, which rise every April
- Unpaid time that counts as working time, such as travel between appointments for mobile workers
- Payslips are a legal right, itemised, on or before payday
Travel between jobs is working time. First journey from home and last one back usually are not, but everything in between counts and must be paid at least minimum wage. If you pay only for time on site, you may be underpaying without knowing it.
Holiday accrues on all of that too, so underpaid travel understates holiday pay as well.
Statutory minimum includes bank holidays unless you give them separately, pro-rated for anyone part time.
Worth checking a real week before this compounds. Want me to work through one?
Advanced engine. It found the specific thing about mobile trades that quietly creates back pay.
The wage floors from 1 April 2026
£12.71 an hour at 21 and over (the National Living Wage), £10.85 at 18 to 20, and £8.00 at 16 to 17 and for apprentices under 19 or in their first year. A worker moves band on their birthday, so check payroll then as well as every April. The test is per pay period: total pay that counts, divided by total working hours, must reach the rate. As of Oct 2026.
National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 regs 6 to 8; GOV.UK National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates from 1 April 2026
Travel between jobs is working time
For workers paid by the hour, travel between assignments counts as working time. Travel from home to the first job and from the last job home does not. Underpaid workers are owed arrears at today's rate if it is higher, and a notice of underpayment adds a penalty of 200% of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. As of Oct 2026.
National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 reg 34; National Minimum Wage Act 1998 s.17; Employment Rights Act 2025 ss.103, 107 and 108
| Minimum pay for 35 hours on site at £12.71 | £444.85 |
| Minimum pay for 5 hours driving between jobs at £12.71 | £63.55 |
| Legal minimum for the week | £508.40 |
| Shortfall if you pay £14.00 an hour for site time only | £18.40 |
35 x £14.00 = £490.00, which averages £12.25 an hour over 40 working hours. The hourly rate looks safe and the week is still underpaid.
Holiday for irregular hours
In Great Britain, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of hours worked, for leave years from 1 April 2024. Rolled-up holiday pay at 12.07% is allowed only for them, and only as its own line on the payslip. Fixed-hours staff take paid leave instead. As of Oct 2026.
Working Time Regulations 1998 regs 13, 13A, 15B and 16A
Statutory Sick Pay
In Great Britain, since 6 April 2026 it is paid from the first full qualifying day of sickness, with no waiting days and no lower earnings limit, at the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, for up to 28 weeks. Any contract or handbook still mentioning waiting days is out of date. As of Oct 2026.
Employment Rights Act 2025; SI 2026/373 reg 2
Mobile workers travelling between jobs is the one that catches trades out. The Fair Work Agency has enforced the minimum wage since 7 April 2026, with HMRC still enforcing during the handover, so a letter from either is genuine and its deadlines run.
I employ [how many] people as [full time, part time, irregular hours] in the UK doing [type of work]. Walk me through my holiday, sick pay and minimum wage obligations, and where businesses like mine usually get it wrong.
Every lesson ends with a question to hand to a Greymill specialist, who answers with what it knows about your business.