A record number of workers received back pay following the latest round of employers to be named and shamed for failing to pay the minimum wage
More than 22,000 workers have received back pay totaling £1.44 million, while the 239 employers involved had to pay combined fines of £1.97 million.
The back pay identified by HMRC was for more workers than in any previous single naming list and applied to underpayments going back as far as 2011.
The top five reasons for not paying staff the National Minimum Wage were: taking deductions from wages for costs such as uniforms; underpaying apprentices; failing to pay travel time; misusing the accommodation offset and; using the wrong time periods for calculating pay.
“It is crucial that employers understand their responsibilities and workers know their rights around the minimum wage. That is why active enforcement and effective communication from government is so important,” said Low Pay Commission Chairman Bryan Sanderson.
“It is therefore encouraging to see that HMRC has recovered unpaid wages for the largest number of workers yet in this round of naming and shaming. I’m confident that the government will continue to pursue underpayment of the minimum wage vigorously.”
Funding for minimum wage enforcement has more than doubled since 2015, with the government set to spend £26.3 million in 2018/19. Those businesses that are found to be paying less than the minimum wage have to pay back arrears of wages to the worker at current minimum wage rates and face financial penalties of up to 200 per cent of arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker.
