All Work and Low Pay Panorama

�6.08 an hour. The law says that's the minimum wage adults should be

earning. We go undercover to expose the companies who're flouting the

rules. How much mostly did you earn on a

week to week basis? Did you read the advert? Yeah, it said, was it

250? It's performance-based. That's meaningless. It's performance-based.

What does that mean? We're out with the inspectors who're clamping down

on rogue employers. How much did you get paid for last week? Don't

know. And hearing from young people who're being asked to work for

nothing. I was managing a team of seven people and they were all

unpaid as well. We reveal the true facts about the army of workers for

We're all feeling the squeeze in austerity Britain. It's everywhere

you look, from the pawnbrokers and discount stores, to men waiting

each morning for casual work. More than two and a half million people

are out of work. And nearly two thirds of people with a job have

had their pay frozen or cut this year. But wages have actually gone

For the wealthy, �6.08 won't even park the car for very long but

that's the new hourly rate for the NMW. And for many workers at the

bottom end of the pay scale, it can make all the difference in these

tough economic times. But we've discovered that many British

workers are being paid less than this - often much less. And some

I'm off in search of the worst paid job in Britain. First stop, my home

town of Glasgow. And a familiar sight we all dread. They're known

as chuggers. Cold-calling door-to- door to get us to sign up for

charity donations. It's a thankless job. And for some of the young

people who do it, it's also very poorly paid. As an unemployed

graduate, desperate for work, Matthew Parkes took a job like this

last year. He didn't get minimum wage. He earned less than half that

- just �2.85 an hour. You'd be working from about quarter past ten

every morning until gone nine o'clock, sometimes gone ten o'clock

at night, and then obviously travel on top of that. By the time you get

home you're absolutely exhausted. I home you're absolutely exhausted. I

worked about seventy hours in a worked about seventy hours in a

week and earned around about �200. With youth unemployment at a record

high, Matthew couldn't be too picky about work. But his company led him

to believe he was a graduate trainee. Smiths Marketing

Associates is still recruiting across the UK, so what else are

they promising? We sent another young graduate, James Craig,

undercover to find out. Fitted with a hidden camera, James went for a

job interview at Smiths' Luton I'm here for an interview with

Smiths Marketing. James doesn't get a chance to say very much at

interview. Instead he's treated to a high-speed sales pitch. Nearly

An impressive list of clients - if you can keep up. But all of them

except the Red Cross told us they'd never worked with Smiths. How much

then can a trainee like James �10,000 a week? That would be half

a million a year! The interviewer gets up to go having barely paused

for breath. But he hasn't told James what he'll earn yet. So James

After twelve minutes of high-octane delivery, that was all he had to

say about pay. So James and I took the secret footage to show to top

employment barrister Simon Cheetham. That's meaningless. It's

performance-based. What does that mean? It may mean that it's

commission-only but of course I'm not sure when you'd find that out.

But the fact that he's so reluctant to tell you how much you're going

to earn, I'd have thought would make every warning sign flash.

Exactly, yeah and the advert specified �250 a week figure that

when I tried to highlight there he just seemed to brush over it there

without any allusion to it whatsoever. Are Smiths young

recruits simply being exploited then? Another researcher Nana

Wilson got a job with the Glasgow team. He was told his earnings

would be based entirely on sales. On his first day, Nana's job was to

persuade people to sign up for a direct debit to the British Red

Cross. After work, he kept a video diary. It's now almost midnight and

I've been working since 10 o'clock. I got there at 10:15, I'm tired,

I've made no money whatsoever today, I've knocked on doors, spoken to

people, I've had no hits. Bedtime. I've got to go and sell things

tomorrow. In fact, Nana didn't make a single sale in three days. So no

pay for him. But what about his more experienced colleagues? One of

the other team leaders was really quite chuffed and proud of the fact

that he did 81 hours and he only got �350 out of that. That's just

over �4 an hour - still well below minimum wage. So are Smiths exempt

from the law because they tell workers it's commission only?

would be far too easy a way to get round paying the national minimum

wage, and so you would look at the pay period, for example, the month

over which the pay is calculated, and that person would be entitled

to the national minimum wage for that period. So even if they're

told it's commssion only, they should get a national minimum wage?

Absolutely, that's the law. then do Smiths get away with paying

some workers so little? Well, read the small print in their job ads.

"You will be working on a self- employed basis so the number of

successful sales you make will determine your weekly earnings".

Under the law, employees are entitled to minimum wage but the

self-employed are not. Are the hard-working young people at Smiths

really self-employed, though? Let's see if James can find out. He's

been called back for a second interview in Luton that actually

turns into a day's unpaid work experience. He's asked to hit the

streets with other new recruits. For the first half hour, you're

going to be with me, so I'll pitch to two doors and then you'll pitch

to one and when you get more comfortable just let me know and

I'll let you go on your own. team leader seems pretty clear

about where and when she expects James to work for Smiths. 12:30

till 2pm is lunch, travel to get to our location and 2 till 8:30 is

work, so basically what we're doing now, knocking on people's doors.

Saturdays, obviously we do have a life. It's 9:30 till 5. Six days a

week, full time, doesn't sound very self-employed. The more that the

employer controls what the person does, tells him what to do, what

hours they do, requires them and only them to do it, the more likely

that person must be an employee. asked Smiths by letter why they're

paying less than minimum wage. They didn't even respond. The British

Red Cross told us: So how many companies are using the self-

employed loophole to get round paying minimum wage? The TUC says

paying minimum wage? The TUC says the problem is widespread. We've

seen problems, for example, in the hairdressing sector, we've seen

problems with couriers who're told that they're self-employed. We've

seen problems with car valets, for example, who have to be at work at

a certain time, who're told when to take their lunch break but are

still told that they're self- employed so they're only able to

earn a few pounds an hour as opposed to the minimum wage rate

that they're legally entitled to. In the last year alone, for example,

ten thousand hairdressers have become self-employed having

previously been on a salon payroll. Mark Coray says it's the only way

some businesses can survive. If the salon makes somebody self employed,

the salon actually gets out of paying holidays, gets out of paying

PAYE and any sick pay. So it's almost like a legal way of avoiding

the high overheads that come with the minimum wage. So it's a way

round it, really? Yes, you could say that. Mark says the minimum

wage has forced him to lay off junior staff in his own salon.

stylists, when they're having their colour rinsed off, they're having

their client's hair shampooed, could be doing it themselves, so

why would I want that extra higher expense? So you're employing fewer

juniors directly as a result of national minimum wage? Definitely.

Some say it's no surprise that small businesses are trying to find

ways to beat the law. Why would you pay �6.08 for something that's only

worth �5 an hour to your business? You're gonna try and find all sorts

of ways round the system. My ideal would be to get rid of it. If you

can't get rid of it, at least have different rates in different

regions of the country, and certainly don't keep putting it up.

Continuing to increase this is basically pricing out people from

the labour market. The government says it's committed to the minimum

wage. And the unions would fight any attempt to scrap it.

evidence is very clear. Over the decades since the minimum wage has

been introduced, there has simply not been a reduction in jobs, as a

result of the minimum wage. In fact, poorer wages for the lowest paid

workers, could result in even less money in people's pockets, less

spending in the economy and fewer jobs being created. One group

particularly vulnerable to exploitation is migrant workers.

More than 1 in 10 are paid below minimum wage. Rural Lincolnshire,

and we're on the road with the inspectors whose job it is to make

sure workers get what they're entitled to. They've heard a group

of foreign workers bussed in from Derby are picking vegetables in

this field. We're going to talk to the workers to find out who they

work for, what they're doing and The men are legally allowed to work

here and should be paid minimum wage. But finding out if they are

is easier said than done. Hello, do you speak English? A little bit.

you know how much you're being paid? �2.75. Is that cash payment?

Cash payment, yes? And do you get that in an envelope with a pay

slip? Yes. Payslip. Turns out the men aren't paid by the hour.

They're paid for each box of spring onions they harvest. So the

inspector has a tough job working out exactly how much they're

earning an hour. These workers are all being paid by piece rate which

means they get paid �2.60 per box that they fill up of the onions.

Even though they're on piece rate they still need to be paid the

national minimum wage. The workers don't have any paperwork on them

and getting the answers the inspector needs is proving tricky.

And do you know the name of the agency? No. You don't know? That's

alright. And does he bring the money here? No, in Derby. No, you

get your money in Derby. How much did you get paid for last week?

There have only been seven criminal prosecutions brought against

employers for paying less than minimum wage sves since it was

introduced over a decade ago. is a minority of employers who are

keen to try and exploit the work force and take advantage of the

fact the national minimum wage is rarely enforced through criminal

sanction, so one would think it only be a fear of prosecution that

would make them take it seriously. Last year alone, the taxman found

that 23,000 people were owed nearly �4 million because they had been

paid less than minimum wage. Exploited workers can take rogue

employers to an employment tribunal. But getting what is owed isn't easy,

as these two men have found. They didn't get minimum wage when they

were employed at security guards in Glasgow, they were on just �3.50

and hour. Jamal Dawsod wasn't paid at all for his final two months of

work. How much were you owed? �5,000. That is a lot of money. You

haven't seen a penny of it? didn't get a penny. He won an

employment tribunal but to get what he is owed the company, First

Response has to be tracked down. We found the registers office here. A

small mailbox rented by the week in Glasgow. The order for payment

can't be served by Jamal. He has to pay a Sheriff's officer to do that.

After a long chat with staff inside, he emerges with bad news. First

Response Security no longer maintain the rental of the box at

the shop. Not withstanding the fact it has not been rented by the spon

dents, it is still a registered office of the company. So where

does that leave Jamal in terms of getting his money back? It means

this document which is a charge for payment can't be served. Are you

disappointed? Yes. Further attempts by us to contact First Response

failed. Jamal has still not been paid his money. When Parliament

passed the minimum wage legislation it was meant to protect all workers.

But the effect of Government spending cuts has been to drive

down wages for the two million people who work in the UK care

industry. We have discovered that an increasing number are being paid

below the minimum wage and that is affecting the whole sector. Take

this woman. She doesn't want to be identified for fear of losing her

present job. Her hourly rate was �6.16 and hour when she used to

care 22 hours a day for someone with Alzheimer's. She was left with

�3.36 an hour because se was paid nothing for the sleep over part of

the shift. I wasn't able to get a good nights rest because I had

broken sleep. I would be woken up by the lieant client at night and

it was continuous. You work a whole week at a time and for less than

the minimum wage. I think those people over there making policies

and thing, they need to look at the real facts and the way life really

is for carers in this country. Glasgow though, these workers are

fighting back. With some companies paying below minimum wage,

reputable care providers like their employers are having to cut wages

to compete. This fight is not over. It won't be over until we sit down

in that office and they agree to change things. These people aren't

braving the rain to demonstrate against some fly-by-night private

company that is out to make a fast buck. Quarriers is a charity with

over 100 years expense of providing high quality social care, and its

pay and conditions have been among the best in the sector. But the

management say they have to reduce patience as cash strapped councils

now expect them to deliver care contracts for less. Some of the

charity's most experienced employees stand to lose the largest

amount. A quarter of my wage or a fifth which works out between

�4,000-�5,000 a year. I am worried about this. That is a lot of money

for anybody. It is mortgage money. The charity's chief executive says

it is simply a case of adapt or die. Are you taking a 20% pay cut?

not. Why not? Bah that wouldn't solve the problem. I could take a

100 percent pay cut and it wouldn't solve the problem. We are under

pressure because we know that Local Authorities and Health Trusts are

in a position where they are having to reduce the amount of money that

is available for contracts. So they want us to do the same for less.

And the reality of care workers pay is far worse than official figures

suggest. We have been given exclusive access to ub

unaccomplished research which shows they wildly underestimate the

number of care workers earning less than minimum wage. Researchers say

the true figure is at least five times higher. What we found, using

the most recent data, on England, that round 9% of the direct care

work force in England is paid under the national minimum wage. What is

your estimate for the whole of the UK? If we assume the same patterns

are across the UK, we then are talking about a range of 150-

200,000 care workers. Up to 200,000 in the care sector are being short

changed, there is a whole new generation that is being asked to

work for nothing at all. Young graduates. With large debts and

graduate unemployment at a 15 year high, pressure to get a job is

intense. And some employers are exploiting their desperation by

offering internships instead of paid work. A survey last month

found that 43% of graduate internships are unpaid. One of the

worst offenders is the media. After leaving university, Keri Hudson

wanted to break into journalism. She took an unpaid internship to

get work experience on a listings website called MyVillage. As soon

as I started it was made clear it was unpaid, but I was getting

rewarded with a portfolio of work and that it wouldn't warrant paying

the stuff I was doing. Very quickly her unpaid work experience started

to look suspiciously like a full- time job. In the second week of me

working there, my credit on the website changed to senior editor. I

was managing a team of seven people, and they were all unpaid as well.

If they obliged to carry out any work, so you get the intern

signature at a desk and realises the person next to them is being

paid do the same. The intern then is probably going to be a worker,

if they ra worker they are entitled to the national minimum wage. That

is what Keri thought. Earlier this year she successfully claimed here

at an employment tribunal she should have been paid minimum wage.

She was awarded more than �1,000. The company that owns MyVillage

Campaigners say the use of internships is spreading into all

sorts of jobs, from catering to even receptionists. But it is the

creative industries like fashion, that are most notorious for

expecting interns to work for free, for months at a time. Fear of

harming their job prospects prevents most for complaining. That

is why this woman doesn't want identifying. She interned for

Stella McCartney. It was a workplacement of three months of

more working from nine to six as a minimum. You were working normal

office hours but sometimes more every day of the week? Yes, we got

travel into work and out of work. And �5 lunch vouchers every day.

There was just so much responsibility on interns to keep

the office going. More so than they needed to and people weren't given

much training. But is the work of an intern worth the full minimum

wage? Supposing somebody is offering a bit of work experience,

maybe it is for six month, maybe for one week. Are you doing the

intern a favour or are they doing you a favour? You can't pay

anything between 0 and �6.08. This causes real problems for

internships. It is an all-or- nothing situation. At the end of

the day you did get some valuable work experience. Some people might

say it is fair enough that you work for nothing. We did have some

really great opportunities that we got to do like every so often you

get to do some great stuff. But most of the time, it was just

ridiculous, like paperwork and stressful hours. So things that

weren't really helping us as interns. Who are there to learn.

With so many young people out of work, she had no real bargaining

power. Did anyone think to ask to be paid? No it is not an option. If

you asked, if you complain or if you ask to be paid they will be

like, leave, because there are so many other people who want that

that they don't need you there there are more people who will do

the work for free. Stella With unpaid internships in

industries like fashion so rife, the Government accomplished new

guidelines that clarified when internships should be paid. But

some fear that is not enough. welcome the guidance that has been

accomplished. We also think information on its own is not

enough, what we need is targeted enforcements in sectors where we

know from evidence that internships are rife, and we would like to see

the Government's minimum wage enforcement teams taking that

forward as a priority. What are the chances of the Government pushing

for more prosecutions, when MPs themselves stand accused of ex

ploilploiting interns. The Deputy Prime Minister has said no

Westminster intern should be unpaid. But what is the reality? A quick

ring round of MPs offices, finds many still using interns. It is

across the political spectrum and more often than not they get little

more than expenses. I want to find out if you are recruiting any

interns at the moment. I think we do it on a long-term basis.

internships going? Yes, the best thing tho is send a CV. Just

experiences? A confidential trade union survey offered a fuller

fuller concern. One said why should only rich people from London be

able to gain experience in Parliament? Another said. We have

to rely on the help of unpaid interns. It is unfair. So is this

the end of the road in my search for the worst paid job in Britain?

Not quite. Meet Norse. He was an intern for an -- Ciaran Norris. He

didn't get minimum wage. He didn't get any salary. In fact he paid

�1200 to work. It was a placement arranged as part of his degree

course. So you paid them to work at Westminster? Yes, I think that is

what most people do. You want this priceless experience. That is how

they sell it. It is, but it isn't because you end up paying a lot to

do it. He paid half course fees to Hull university but he says he was

a full-time reSERPS at Westminster. It was a job of work. You did a lot

of the things researchers do you respond to constituents. You are

responsible for producing briefs at short notice. Hull university says

he was aware of the financial arrangements before he took up the

Ciaran accepts it was valuable experience but says he hadn't

anticipated how much debt it would leave him in and he expected better

from MPs. This is a place that is supposed to be setting the standard.

We have seen examples of how they have been doing the opposite. I

think it is fairly cheap to say we want people to come in and have

these opportunities but at the same time we don't b want, we want them

to indebt themselves. I don't think that is fair. It is hard times for

most of us, as pay and living standards are squeezed ever tighter.