Minimum Wage and Commission

[seabro]

Hi there,

I understand commission counts towards minimum wage.

How does it work when it comes to holiday pay being paid to someone after they have been fired?

My sister was fired and final holiday pay was paid at £33.33 per day which is below minimum wage for the days she was doing (I need to check with her what her day length was in her contract but it was certainly no less than 7.5 hours).

Obviously she can't earn commission whilst on holidays. Should it be paid at a rate based on the average commission she earned in a reference period?

Also, she was fired mid Feb. Had she not earned any / much commission up to that date, would the employer need to upgrade her pay to make minimum wage?

Thanks for your kind assistance.

seabro.

[Tools]

Re: Minimum Wage and Commission

Hi Seabro and welcome to the forum,

For starters have a read of the information contained in the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitleme...pay-the-basics

https://www.gov.uk/understanding-you...or-get-bonuses

Your sister should be paid holiday entitlement at an average over the last 12 weeks (more if she was unpaid for any weeks in that period), which should put her back to AT LEAST minimum wage. They have to pay her at least minimum wage for her holiday entitlement, but I think she would be hard pushed to be paid at the higher rate (if this applies) if her commission made the 12 week average more. She could try it, but depending on how much difference it would make determines if the extra fight is worth it.

May I also ask why she was fired?

[seabro]

Re: Minimum Wage and Commission

Thank you St Bernard.

I have drafted an email for her which she is sending to payroll.

She tells me she was fired for being late but I only have her side of the story. She is however struggling to get written confirmation of her reason for dismissal. I have again requested that in the email I drafted for her. She worked there less than two years, I believe that makes a difference to employee rights.

Assuming they have in fact paid her less than she was due, and assuming they should and do know better, have they not attempted to defraud her in some way? The company has a high turnover of staff and so they must be short-changing shed loads of people nationally.