The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and the effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.<\/p>
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The Government has collaborated with care sector representative bodies to improve understanding of compliance risks and design controls within payroll systems that prevent workers being underpaid the minimum wage, in order to improve compliance.<\/p>
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Guidance on Gov.uk has been updated to make it as clear as possible that travel time and rest breaks between assignments must be paid at least the national minimum wage (NMW).<\/p>
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In addition, the Government will continue to work with the sector to ensure that understanding improves. This will include the Department of Health\u2019s statutory guidance as part of the overall guidance on market shaping and commissioning the final version of which will be published in Autumn 2014.<\/p>
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We have considered the National Audit Office report and note that their estimates come from a self-reported survey of care workers. Examination of surveys of individuals (such as the Labour Force Survey) find that some people tend to report longer working hours and a lower hourly rate compared to those reported by employers who pay the minimum wage.<\/p>
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The current best estimate of non-compliance is derived from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)[1]. The Low Pay Commission[2] published the proportion of jobs held by those aged 22 and over, paid below the NMW by sector. Figures show that non-compliance is relatively low in social care (0.8%) compared with other sectors. This is generally in line with non-compliance in the whole economy.<\/p>
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This estimate, as well as all estimates of non-compliance, has some limitations. However, there are no reasons to suppose that these limitations affect the social care sector more or less than the economy<\/ins> as a whole.<\/ins><\/p> <\/p> [1] ASHE is a survey of employees completed by employers which we can use to look at workers earning at or below the NMW rate.<\/p>