Agricultural wages

The right to certain minimum wage benefits applies to specific agricultural workers within different parts of Great Britain. Agricultural workers often have more beneficial minimum rates of pay, holiday, and sick pay, pay when there is bad weather and no work and rest breaks.

England

Agricultural workers in England who were employed before the 1st October 2103 are entitled to the terms and conditions set out in the Agricultural Wages (England and Wales) Order 2012 if this is specifically mentioned in their contracts of employment. The following table shows the rates set out in this Order for workers who are not flexible workers who were employed before 1st October 2013.

	Weekly Pay	Hourly Pay	Minimum Overtime  Hourly Rate
Grade 1 of Compulsory School Age	-	£3.11	£4.67
Grade 1 Above Compulsory School Age	£242.19	£6.21	£9.32
Grade 2	£271.44	£6.96	£10.44
Grade 3	£298.74	£7.66	£11.49
Grade 4	£320.19	£8.12	£12.32
Grade 5	£339.30	£8.70	£13.05
Grade 6	£366.60	£9.40	£14.10

The following table shows the rates set out in this Order for workers who are flexible workers who were employed before 1st October 2013.

	No. of days on which basic hours worked	Minimum Weekly pay	Minimum Hourly pay	Minimum Overtime  Hourly Rate
Grade 1	4 – 5	£254.28	£6.52	£9.32
	6	£258.96	£6.64
Grade 2	4 – 5	£285.09	£7.31	£10.44
	6	£290.55	£7.45
Grade 3	4 – 5	£313.56	£8.04	£11.49
	6	£319.80	£8.20
Grade 4	4 – 5	£336.18	£8.62	£12.32
	6	£342.42	£8.78
Grade 5	4 – 5	£356.46	£9.14	£13.05
	6	£363.09	£9.31
Grade 6	4 – 5	£384.93	£9.87	£14.10
	6	£392.34	£10.06

Agricultural workers who started their employment after the 1st October 2013 are only entitled to the National Minimum Wage and other ‘normal’ statutory employment rights and restrictions.

Wales

The above wage tables apply to all agricultural workers employed within Wales. Before workers begin work, Welsh employers have to give their agricultural workers an Agricultural Wage Order which sets out the terms and conditions of their employment, along with a written statement of main terms of their employment.

Scotland

The Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order (No 62) applies to all agricultural workers within Scotland from the 1st October 2014. The key terms in this Order are:

• A minimum hourly rate of £6.70 for all workers in the first 26 weeks of employment
• A minimum hourly rate of £7.24 for all workers employed for more than 26 weeks
• A minimum hourly rate of £4.02 for workers carrying out a Level 2 Apprenticeship
• Minimum overtime hourly rate of £10.05 for all workers in the first 26 weeks of employment
• Minimum overtime hourly rate of £10.86 for all workers employed for more than 26 weeks
• Additional hourly sum to be paid to workers with specific qualifications is £1.10

Northern Ireland

Agricultural workers rights in Northern Ireland are set by the NI Agricultural Wages Board. The following rates apply to agricultural workers within NI from the 6th April 2015:

Grade	Hourly Pay
Grade 1	£6.63
Grade 2	£6.91
Grade 3	£7.59
Grade 4	£8.15
Grade 5	£8.63
Grade 6	£9.34