What is the minimum wage for my age? I'm 19 and i get �3.80 an hour, i thought it was supposed to be �4.20 for my age group. Also my boss asked me to work 9 til 6 instead of my usual 1 til 6 but only get paid for my usual hours! Can she do this??!!
'fraid so. You are working for one of the employers who do pay you the absolute minimum. The minimum will go up to �4.10 in October though.
There is a higher band which you will get into at the age of 22.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/nmw/
The National Minimum Wage is an hourly rate, so you shouldn't get paid the same for 9 hours as for 5. If you work 9 'til 6 (assuming an hour break), you should get at least �3.80 x 8 = �30.40 per day. The DTI webpage provided by flashpig tells you what to do if you consider you're being underpaid.
When you say that she will pay you your "usual hours" do you mean the hourly wage and not overtime or she will pay you for 5 hours work but have to do 9 hours work?
As others have said, go to the dti website. Your employer has to pay you a minimum hourly rate by law and there are teams in several government departments set up to make sure that she does. Good luck getting it sorted Snappy