Rogue employers named and shamed for failing to pay minimum wage

139 employers, including some of the UK’s biggest household names, have been named and shamed in a government press release for failing to pay £6.7 million to over 95,000 workers in breach of the national minimum wage (NMW) legislation.

This is the first time in over two years that the government has named and shamed employers for failing to pay the NMW, as the naming and shaming scheme was paused in 2018 so that an evaluation into its effectiveness could be carried out. The scheme has now resumed but one key change is that the press release includes a new educational bulletin which sets out the most common reasons for NMW underpayment among employers in this naming round, together with a summary of NMW guidance on paying workers.

The press release highlights that one of the main causes of NMW breaches was workers being made to cover work costs, which would take their pay below the NMW, such as paying for uniforms, training, meals or parking fees. In addition, some employers failed to raise workers’ pay after they had a birthday which should have moved them into a different NMW bracket. Two other common reasons for underpayment were failing to pay the correct rate to apprentices and failing to pay workers for working time, such as for additional work before and after their shifts or rounding clock-in time to the nearest hour.

All the employers named in the press release have now paid back their workers and were also forced to pay financial penalties.