Skilled worker rules relating to skilled worker minimum pay are quite complex. It is the result of the various changes to UK immigration rules in the recent years. The Appendix Skilled Occupations has significantly expanded.
There are some industries where it is quite common to work irregular working hours. Those may be adult social care jobs or fishing. If the hours of work are not the same each week the Home Office sets out specific rules. Those rules have to be followed by sponsor employers to ensure that the pay is meeting at least the required skilled worker minimum.
Paying your sponsored workers the required minimum pay is crucial to keeping your sponsor licence and avoid revocation.
How to assess minimum pay for skilled worker with irregular working hours
Calculation of salary: irregular working patterns is set out in the UK immigration rules and we outline it below.
The following rules apply where the worker’s working hours vary each week, resulting in uneven pay:
• work in excess of 48 hours in some weeks can be considered towards the general salary threshold, provided the average over a regular cycle (which can be no more than 17 weeks) is not more than 48 hours a week
• any unpaid rest weeks will count towards the average when considering whether the salary thresholds are met
• any unpaid rest weeks will not count as absences from employment
For example, a worker who works a pattern of 60 hours a week for £20 per hour for two weeks, followed by an unpaid rest week, will be considered to work 40 hours a week on average and have a salary of £41,600 (£20 x 40 x 52) per year.