Being paid below National Living Wage

[Phil_1982]

Hi
I am 36 years old. In September 2017 I decided to make a life changing career decision and move out of an office role and into the Plumbing trade. I began studying two evenings per week at college, funded by me. In January 2018 I was employed by a plumbing company as I was looking to gain hands on experience in the field. They offered me £7.00 per hour for a 40 hour week. Being that I was unemployed and looking for work I took the offer.
They agreed to review my position after 3 months to which they were happy to keep me on, but did not offer me anymore money.
I am now still with the company (15 months) and still on the same £7.00 per hour.
With the National Living Wage going up this week to £8.21 it made me think, have I been underpaid all this time due to my age. Just to make it clear I am not in an apprentice position, and there is no support of my college course by my employer.

As I'm still employed with this company, is there a certain approach I can take to get this resolved? Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[ULA]

Hi sorry not to pick up on your post earlier. If you are employed with a contract of employment and they did not consider you to be in your first year of an apprenticeship scheme when you joined, then you are correct that £7.00 per hour was less than the minimum wage rate back in Jan 2018 and continues to be so. To calculate what you are owed then this is a helpful government website:

https://www.gov.uk/am-i-getting-minimum-wage

There are a number of things you can do to try and recover any unpaid money, however once you have your full facts of what you believe you are owed I suggest that you speak with your employer first and see if that resolves the issue.