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The national minimum wage and voluntary workers

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform consulted the third sector on the national minimum wage and voluntary workers.

The consultation is part of the Government's review of the rules in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 that relate to voluntary workers.

The review is taking place to take into account the diversity of the third sector and the lack of information about the sector's experience of the legislation.

The National Minimum Wage Act excludes voluntary workers from qualifying for the minimum wage. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the original intentions of the Act are being fulfilled to ensure that:

• voluntary workers can continue to contribute to their work, and benefit from it, especially where they are not in employment, education or training
• people who are workers are not be exploited by falsely being treated as volunteers or voluntary workers

The consultation had two basic purposes:

• to enable those who work in the third sector to give their views about their experiences with the minimum wage
• to set out proposals to support a new national framework for youth volunteering, as recommended in the Russell Commission report.

Consultation document

• National minimum wage and voluntary workers: consultation document [PDF, External website]

Response to the consultation

The consultation ended on Tuesday 4 September 2007, and the Government published its response on 27 November 2007:

• National minimum wage and voluntary workers: Government response to consultation _{[PDF, external website]}

Further details

Further details of the consultation are available on the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website[external website].