Minimum wage claim by job level

What it means

The Labour Code sorts jobs into six difficulty levels, each with its own pay floor. Level one equals the minimum wage; the higher levels sit above it.

The employer assigns the level by the real difficulty of the work: responsibility, autonomy, managing people, the qualification required. Not by what the job is called.

The statutory levels with their own floors are a safety net for employers whose pay terms are not set in a collective agreement. Where such an agreement covers pay, the parties to it agree the floors for each level. The minimum wage itself, as the lowest limit, still applies to every employer, with or without a collective agreement.

How it works in practice

The assignment belongs in the employment contract or the pay notice and feeds into employer cost planning. It is reviewed when duties change, not only when pay does.

Premiums for overtime, holidays or night work do not count towards the floor. The comparison is against base pay, not total earnings including premiums.

The levels are tied to the minimum wage, which usually changes from January. Before the first payroll of the new year we therefore go through all the client’s gross pay figures and flag those that have fallen below the floor for their level. For part-time staff we compare against the amount prorated to the agreed working hours, not against the full monthly floor.

What to watch out for

A wrong level is a standard labour inspection finding, settled by back pay for the whole period together with the contributions and compensations calculated from it.

Moving a job to a lower level only on paper, without changing the actual work, saves nothing. The inspectorate compares the description in the personnel file with what the employee really does, and where they differ it adds a fine for the employer on top of the back pay.