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Piece work

Piece work is where your employer pays you by the amount of work you do, rather than by the hour.

If you are a worker or employee (see our section on Employees, workers and the self-employed), you will normally be entitled to the National Minimum Wage.

For piece work, you're entitled to the minimum wage rate either for all the hours you work or, if the 'fair piece rate' system is in operation, for 120% of the hours that the average worker working for your employer would take to do the work you do.

The effect of the system is that all workers, except those who are much slower than average, earn at least the minimum wage rate for the hours they actually put in.

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