NMWM04060 | Status: other contracts for National Minimum Wage status purposes

Relevant legislation

The legislation that applies to this page is as follows:

• National Minimum Wage Act 1998, sections 54(1), 54(2) & 54(4)

• Employment Rights Act 2025, section 151

The lack of a contract of employment does not prevent someone being a worker for minimum wage purposes (NMWM05020).

Under National Minimum Wage legislation, a person is considered to be a worker, and working under a worker’s contract, if they have;

• A contract of service (this is a less common name for a contract of employment, (NMWM04050)),

• A contract of apprenticeship; (NMWM04070), or

• any other contract (NMWM04030) whereby the person undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party (and who is not performing these services as a person in business on his own account).

In some types of work, such as home working and agency working, it is not always clear what type of contract the person is working under, a contract of employment or a contract for service. National Minimum Wage legislation is written to ensure that both agency workers (NMWM05110) and homeworkers (NMWM05120) are considered to be working under a worker’s contract.