On-call and standby : calculate what you are owed

• First identify the NMW work type: salaried hours, time work, output work, or unmeasured work. Hour rules differ.
• For time work and salaried hours work, GOV.UK counts time you must be available on standby or on-call at or near the workplace, unless you are at home, subject to the sleep-in exception described below.
• GOV.UK example: a time worker waiting at the factory for a delayed delivery while required to be available must get NMW for that time; the same worker at home waiting for a call-in is not paid NMW for home waiting until they arrive and work or are available at work.
• Sleep-in framing on GOV.UK's night-working page and calculating chapter is fact-sensitive. Do not treat every night shift as unpaid sleep or as fully paid work without checking expectations and facilities.
• Working Time rules are separate: GOV.UK says time spent on call at the workplace counts toward the working week; time on call away from the workplace does not. NMW and Working Time tests are related but not identical.
• From April 2026 the adult (21+) NMW / NLW rate is £12.71. Dual tribunal limits still apply if you claim personally.

GOV.UK: hours that attract NMW depend on whether the worker performs:

• salaried hours work (annual salary for a basic number of hours, paid in regular instalments meeting the tests)
• time work (paid by reference to time)
• output work (paid by piece or task under the output rules)
• unmeasured work (anything that is not the above)

HMRC "tests" type in that order when investigating. One contract can mix types (for example salaried basic hours plus hourly overtime as time work). On-call pay often sits on top of another pattern. Wrong type means wrong hour formula.

Output and unmeasured rules have their own hour lists. Most classic GOV.UK on-call examples sit under time work or salaried hours work. Fixed-sum availability with tasks "as needed" may be unmeasured work (and any daily average agreement). Read that GOV.UK chapter rather than forcing a time-work story.

Time work

For time work, hours that count include:

• time at the workplace working (rest breaks generally excluded)
• time at the workplace when required to be available for work (work need not be provided)
• time required to be available for work on standby or on-call at or near the workplace, unless the worker is at home, with a sleep-facility exception
• certain travelling and training time
• sleep time only in the circumstances GOV.UK describes under sleep-in shifts

Salaried hours work

GOV.UK treats a salaried hours worker as working for NMW purposes when they are, among other things, at work and required to be at work, or on standby or on-call at or near their place of work, unless they are at home, again subject to the sleep rules.

The official factory example (follow this wording)

GOV.UK:

• You call a time worker into the factory for an urgent order, but delivery is delayed. While the worker is at the factory and required to be available, you must pay at least NMW for that time even though they cannot yet work.
• If the worker is at home waiting for you to call them in, you do not have to pay NMW for the home waiting time. Entitlement starts after they arrive and are working or available for work.

That contrast is the core public rule. Labels like "on call", "standby", "pager", or "sleepover" do not override location and what you are required to do.

GOV.UK's phrase is at or near the workplace, unless at home. Real arrangements sit on a spectrum: required to remain on site; required to stay in on-site accommodation; required to remain nearby with tight response rules; or free at home and only required to answer and travel in if called.

The first clusters sit closer to "at or near the workplace". The last tracks the home-waiting example. GOV.UK does not define near as a fixed distance. Restriction, location, and duties during the wait are factual. This article will not invent a bright-line rule. If your pattern is borderline, get advice before asserting a full-shift NMW claim or accepting a nil claim.

When you are called and actually work, that response time counts as working time for NMW on the usual rules even if the idle home wait did not.

GOV.UK's night working hours page states there is no higher NMW rate for night work, then summarises sleep-in shifts:

• If you are expected to sleep for most of a sleep-in shift (GOV.UK example: a care worker) and suitable sleeping facilities are provided, you get NMW for the periods when you are awake to perform tasks.
• If you are expected to work for most of a shift, you get NMW for the whole shift even if you may sleep between tasks.

The calculating chapter adds that for time asleep not to count on time work / salaried hours work, the employer must provide suitable sleeping facilities; without them, NMW is due for the entire shift. GOV.UK stresses that cases differ with the contract and practice, and gives illustrative scenarios (listening ear while permitted to sleep; occasional calls with expected sleep; security guard expected to work most of the shift; frequent waking that changes the shift's character).

Use those GOV.UK categories only. Do not quote press headlines as law. Expectation in practice matters as much as a "sleep-in" label. This article does not invent case holdings beyond what GOV.UK publishes. Facts between "sleep most of the night" and "work most of the shift" are borderline: get advice.

Use these only where your facts match. They are not advice for mixed patterns.

Illustration A (matches GOV.UK factory-at-work example): Age 35. You must wait 3 hours on site for a delayed delivery while required to be available. No other pay that week yet for those hours. NMW floor: 3 × £12.71 = £38.13 for that wait alone (before combining with the rest of the pay reference period).

Illustration B (matches GOV.UK home-wait example): Same worker spends 3 hours at home waiting for a possible call-in, then is not called. On the GOV.UK example, those home hours are not NMW hours. If later called in for 2 hours of actual work, those 2 hours count; home idle time still follows the home-wait rule.

Illustration C (sleep-in per GOV.UK night-page summary): Expected to sleep most of an 8-hour sleep-in with suitable bed provided; awake on tasks for 90 minutes. On that GOV.UK framing, NMW attaches to the 90 minutes awake for tasks (8 × £12.71 would be the wrong multiplier if the sleep-most / facilities conditions truly apply). If instead you are expected to work most of the night and only nap between tasks, GOV.UK points to NMW for the whole shift.

Rebuild every illustration inside the full pay reference period: total NMW pay ÷ total counting hours.

GOV.UK maximum weekly working hours guidance lists what counts toward the average 48-hour week. It includes time spent on call at the workplace. It does not include time you spend on call away from the workplace.

A home on-call night may sit outside the Working Time week while still raising NMW questions when you actually work after a call-in. A workplace on-call block may count for Working Time before you finish the NMW average. Night workers have extra limits on the night-working page. Keep the regimes separate. Opt-outs affect the 48-hour average; they do not waive NMW.

1. Write down where you had to be, response times, and what you were forbidden to do while "on call".
2. Keep rotas, on-call rotas, pager logs, call-out timestamps, and payslips (hour figures when pay varies with time).
3. Identify work type using GOV.UK's table, then list counting hours only under that type.
4. Test the average at £12.71 (or the correct younger / apprentice band).
5. Raise the shortfall in writing. For NMW underpayment Acas says you generally choose HMRC or a tribunal, not both for the same issue.

Dual tribunal limits: most claims 3 months minus 1 day now; from 1 October 2026 most become 6 months minus 1 day if the clock starts on or after that date (Acas). Early Conciliation can pause the limit if you notify Acas in time; grievances do not.

• "On call always means full NMW for every hour." GOV.UK's home-wait example says otherwise for home availability without more.
• "On call never needs NMW until I am called." Workplace / near-workplace availability can count even with no customers or no call-out.
• "Sleep-in is always free overnight." GOV.UK pays awake task time on sleep-most shifts, and whole-shift NMW when you are expected to work most of the shift (and when suitable sleep facilities are missing on time work / salaried hours work).
• "Working Time and NMW use the same hour list." Close, not identical. Check both pages.
• "A case I read online decides my facts." Borderline facts need advice. This guide will not invent holdings for you.

Map location, restrictions, and awake minutes before you argue rates. Paye Mes Heures helps organise on-call blocks and call-out time against £12.71 for payroll or Acas. It prepares numbers; it does not decide borderline workplace-versus-home or sleep-in questions, and it is not a substitute for advice, HMRC, or a tribunal. If your facts are not a clean match to the GOV.UK factory or home examples, get advice before you escalate.

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/calculating-the-minimum-wage
• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/calculating-the-minimum-wage/working-hours-for-which-the-minimum-wage-must-be-paid
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/621/contents
• https://www.gov.uk/night-working-hours
• https://www.gov.uk/maximum-weekly-working-hours
• https://www.gov.uk/maximum-weekly-working-hours/calculating-your-working-hours
• https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
• https://www.acas.org.uk/employment-tribunal-time-limits