minimum wage and overtime

[mitsy]

Someone I know gets paid minimum wage (salary) but they are working a lot of overtime nearly an hour a day if not more and NOT getting paid for it. It states in their contract they must do a minimum amount if required, as they have been told this has been accounted for in their pay, but how can this be if they get paid minimum wage?? Is this legal?

[factor-fiction]

How many hours are they contracted for and how many hours do they get paid for?

[bignanny]

Read the contract, some say minimum hours to be worked 'x'---. but overtime only paid after ..full time hours:( Sad but it's their way of getting cheap labour and not paying any extra for it.

[buildersmate]

Bignanny is getting mixed-up I think.
It is quite common for part-timers not to be paid at overtime RATES (when they work overtime) until the hours worked in a particualr week exceed the hours done by a full-timer (for example, 37). This is because otherwise part-timers are earning at an enhanced rate when colleagues who are full-timers working alongside them are still on standard rate.
The question implies the person is not getting paid at all - not even standard rate. This is not on.

[dothawkes31]

The only scenario i can think of is that they are say contracted to 16 hours a week, one week they work 16, the next 15 the next 17, but for each week they get paid 16 hours. i know travel agents and other seasonally led sectors do operate their pay structure in this way.

[buildersmate]

That sounds more like an 'annual hours' contract. (16*52 hours per annum, in your example).
A 16 hours per week contract is just that.