Minimum wage compliance - BEIS publishes latest name and shame list
17 August 2017
Minimum wage compliance includes payment of the national Minimum Wage and since April 2016 the National Living Wage. Policy owners BEIS have the power to publically name and shame employers who have been found by HMRC NMW compliance teams to be non-compliant.
The reasons for failing to pay the minimum wage are many and varied. The name and shame list names the employer, the amount underpaid and the number of employees affected. Much can be learned from the experiences of these employers but the list does not extend to including case studies to explain what went wrong for these employers and employees.
The latest list includes the names of 233 employers – less than the February record of 359 employers but still reflective of the significant investment made in recent years to HMRC NMW compliance teams.
Guidance is published by BEIS and the latest available (April 2017) guidance is available to download – it is updated to take account of tribunal rulings and should be considered a ‘must read’ document.
Employees and employers can also find further information and calculators at A step up in pay
CIPP comment
Much work is being carried out at the moment across Government and involving a range of stakeholders, amongst which the CIPP policy team and CIPP members are involved. Deliberate failure to pay the minimum wage to employees cannot be condoned however the reasons that an employer may fail to pay the minimum wage are many and varied and much can be done by BEIS and HMRC to improve the educational opportunities from the information provided through the name and shame publicity to provide us all with the opportunity learn, not only from our own mistakes, but also from those of others.