24th October 2010, 01:33 PM
And even charities and public bodies must pay the minimum wage if they have what can be seen as a "contract of employment" with an individual (apprentices excluded). Contracts of employment can be verbal so just because an organisation is a registered charity it is not excluded from paying the minimum wage unless the work is very clearly voluntary, which in the big charities is very clearly defined. As you can see a big can of worms just waiting for someone to open it