The Government Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy have today released a list of employers nationwide who have breached minimum wage rules, and had to top up employees wages and pay big fines. The press releases is here.

• Government names and shames 191 employers who have underpaid workers, including major household names
• named firms have been fined for owing £2.1 million to over 34,000 workers
• Business Minister Paul Scully: “Employers that short-change workers won’t get off lightly”

Following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, a total of £2.1 million was found to be owed to over 34,000 workers.

The breaches took place between 2011 and 2018. Named employers have since been made to pay back what they owed, and were fined an additional £3.2 million, showing it is never acceptable to underpay workers.

Companies such as John Lewis, Pret a Manager, Welcome Break featured in the list.

But without seeking to defend their actions, many breaches of minimum wage are easily avoidable and usually down to a misunderstanding by the employer of what they can and cannot do.

The employers named today previously underpaid workers in the following ways:

• 47% wrongly deducted pay from workers’ wages, including for uniform and expenses
• 30% failed to pay workers for all the time they had worked, such as when they worked overtime
• 19% paid the incorrect apprenticeship rate

And in my experience, it is the first one which gets many employers.

They believe it is appropriate to pay someone and then deduct the costs of uniforms or other expenses. And you cannot do that.

I’ve also seen companies deduct money for housing costs, but because it was work related housing, it mean that the employee received less than minimum wage per hour worked.

Fundamentally, all employees must receive at least minimum wage for each hour worked. If they work overtime, they must be paid at least minimum wage for that over time.

As you can see here, the Government and HMRC are keen to enforce it, so the fines that were levied are more than the payment of the wages by around 50%.

So be careful. Ensure that you pay everyone at least minimum wage and that you do not make any deductions from pay which would see them go below a net receipt of minimum wage for hours worked.