National Minimum Wage 

The National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 provides that the minimum wage rate for an experienced adult employee from 1 May, 2005 is 7.65 euro per hour. Before then, the minimum wage rate was 7 euro per hour. The national minimum wage is reviewed at regular intervals
An experienced adult employee for the purposes of the Minimum Wage Act is an employee who has an employment of any kind in any two years over the age of 18.
Of course the national minimum wage does not stop an employer from offering a higher wage. 

Rules
What does not count as pay?
There are a number of items that are not to be included in the minimum wage calculation, these are:

- Overtime premium
- Call-out premium
- Service pay
- Unsocial hours premium
- Tips which are placed in a central fund managed by the employer and paid as part of your wages
- Premiums for working public holidays, Saturdays or Sundays
- Allowances for special or additional duties
- On-call or standby allowances
- Certain payments in relation to absences from work, for example, sick pay, holiday pay or pay during health and safety leave
- Payment connected with leaving the employment including retirement
- Contributions paid by the employer into any occupational pension scheme available to you
- An advance payment of, for example, salary: the amount involved will be taken into account for the period in which it would normally have been paid
- Payment in kind or benefit in kind, other than board and/or lodgings
- Payment not connected with the person's employment
- Compensation for injury or loss of tools
- Award as part of a staff suggestion scheme
- Loan by the employer to you 

What counts as pay?
For the purposes of the national minimum wage your gross wage includes, for example, the basic salary and any shift premium, bonus or service charge.
If you receive food (known as board) and/or accommodation (known as lodgings) from your employer, the following amounts are included in the minimum wage calculation:

- 54.13 euro for full board and lodgings per week, or 7.73 euro per day
- 32.14 euro for full board only per week, or 4.60 euro per day
- 21.85 euro for lodgings only per week, or 3.14 euro per day 

Working hours
Your working hours are whichever is the greater:
- The hours set out in any document such as a contract of employment, collective agreement or statement of terms of employment provided under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, 

or

- The actual hours worked or available for work and paid

"Working hours" include:

- overtime
- travel time where this is part of the job
- time spent on training authorised by the employer and during normal working hours

"Working hours" does not include:

- time spent on standby other than at the workplace
- time on leave, lay-off, strike
- time spent travelling to or from work 

Victimisation
If you seek your entitlement to the national minimum wage you are protected from victimisation or dismissal. Victimisation is prohibited by the legislation. In addition if you are dismissed for seeking the national minimum wage, you may bring a claim for unfair dismissal regardless of length of service or number of hours worked per week.
If you are due an increase under the National Minimum Wage Act your employer cannot reduce your working hours without a corresponding reduction in duties or the amount of work. 

How to apply
If you are not receiving the national minimum wage there are two ways in which you may enforce your rights:
You may either request a labour inspector from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to investigate a claim that the national minimum wage is not being paid.

or

You may also refer a dispute to a rights commissioner. However this may only be done where you have requested from the employer a statement outlining the calculation of the average hourly pay. You must refer the dispute with six months of the supplying of the statement. (The rights commissioner may extend the referral limit to a maximum of 12 months.) Where the employer fails to provide the statement the time starts from the date at which the employer should have provided the statement, that is within four weeks of the request.

Note: you may not refer a complaint to both a rights commissioner and a labour inspector in relation to the same dispute under the Minimum Wage Act.

If you are alleging victimisation, you should request that the employer restore your employment conditions to their position before the victimisation. Where the employer fails to do this within two weeks of the request, you may refer the matter to the rights commissioner. This referral must take place within six months (which may be extended to a maximum of 12 months by the rights commissioner) of the alleged victimisation. 

Where to apply 

For complaint forms relating to that Act, you should contact 
Employment Rights Information Unit                                                      Rights Commissioner Service,
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment                                 Tom Johnson House
Room G05                                                                                               Haddington Road
Davitt House                                                                                             Dublin 4
65A Adelaide Road,                                                                                 Lo-call: 1890 220 227
Dublin 2.                                                                                                    Fax (01) 613 6701
Tel: (01) 631 3131                                                                                    Email rightscomm@lrc.ie
Lo-call: 1890 201 615
Fax: (01) 631 3329
E-mail: erinfo@entemp.ie 

Opening hours: 9.30 am - 5.00 pm (including lunchtime)