(1) Subject to section 18, all the pay of an employee in a specific pay reference period shall be included in calculating the employee's average hourly rate of pay in that period for the purposes of determining under this Act whether an employee is being paid not less than the minimum hourly rate of pay to which he or she is entitled in that period.

(2) Any payments or benefits-in-kind listed in Part 2 of the Schedule 1 are not included as pay of an employee for the purposes of subsection (1).

(3) The Minister may, by regulation, add an item to, delete an item from, or otherwise amend, the Schedule 1 but only after consultation with such representatives of employers and employees in the State as the Minister considers appropriate.

(4) An employer shall not, for the purposes of this Act, change a payment or benefit-in-kind listed as a non-reckonable component of pay as set out in Part 2 of the Schedule 1 so that its status becomes that of a reckonable component of pay as set out in Part 1 of the Schedule 1.