HMRC names 518 employers for minimum wage breaches
Ensure your business is complying amid heightened HMRC scrutiny
The latest list published by HMRC, which focuses on investigations concluded between 2015-2022, has named 518 employers that failed to comply with National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) regulations.
The list contains some high-profile businesses, including one that underpaid up to £1.1m in wages. This public naming forms part of HMRC’s ongoing efforts to enforce wage compliance and uphold workers’ rights to fair pay.
A continued focus on wage compliance
Ensuring that workers receive the pay they are legally entitled to has been a key priority for HMRC in recent years. Employers suspected of non-compliance have been subject to targeted investigations and enforcement campaigns. These actions are designed to drive awareness, encourage self-correction, and deter future breaches.
Importantly, employers will be named even if the breach was unintentional, and there is no minimum threshold for underpayment. In fact, the list shows an average underpayment as low as £0.03 per worker, per week. This does show that there is no de minis limit for when HMRC will seek the amounts due to the workers or publish the employers details.
What does the list represent?
The newly released list highlights significant figures:
- 518 employers have been named for underpaying staff.
- A total of £7.4 million in wages was found to have been underpaid.
- Nearly 60,000 workers were impacted by these underpayments.
These figures underline both the scale of the issue and the importance of getting wage compliance right.
Compliance is more challenging than it seems
While most employers do not intentionally underpay their workers, the rules surrounding NMW and NLW can be complex. Common pitfalls include:
- Failing to pay for all working time (e.g. training, travel, waiting time).
- Deductions from wages that reduce pay below the minimum threshold, including salary sacrifice arrangements.
- Misclassification of workers or misunderstanding of age-related wage bands.
- Incorrect calculations related to salary sacrifice or accommodation offsets.
Steps to take for compliance
To help ensure you remain compliant:
- Review employment contracts and working practices to ensure all time worked is accounted for.
- Conduct regular internal audits of pay structures and payroll data.
- Stay informed about annual changes to minimum wage rates.
- Train HR and payroll teams to recognise potential risk areas.
- Seek expert advice where there is uncertainty.
With minimum wage rates rising each year, maintaining compliance must be an ongoing process.
What happens if you get it wrong?
Non-compliance can have serious consequences, including:
- Penalties of up to 200% of the underpayment (capped at £20,000 per worker), as well as underpaid workers having to be paid what they’re owed.
- Reputational damage from being publicly named by HMRC.
- Increased likelihood of future HMRC investigations.
We are here to help
Avoiding unintentional breaches requires proactive oversight. We can carry out a comprehensive NMW/NLW health check for your business, helping identify and address any areas of concern.
Our Employment Tax team are also on hand to support you if you’re facing an enquiry, which can be disruptive and costly. We can guide you through the process to keep any disruption to a minimum and work hard to get the best possible outcome for you.
If you have any questions about your obligations or need support with wage calculations, please contact a member of our specialist team.
