HM Revenue & Customs have just released the names of 70 offenders who have failed to pay the National Minimum Wage (“NMW”).
The current rates of NMW are as follows:
Employees aged 21 and above £6.50 per hour
Employees aged 18 to 20 £5.13 per hour
Employees under 18 £3.79 per hour
Apprentices £2.73 per hour
The apprentice rate is payable to people engaged under the apprenticeship scheme who are aged 16 to 18. It is also payable to apprentices aged 19 years and above who are in their first year of apprenticeship.
The 70 offenders who have been named include one firm who underpaid a total of £37,000 to 184 workers. At the other end of the spectrum is a firm who underpaid 1 employee about £100.
Many of the underpayments arose through errors, such as not increasing people’s wages when they moved from one range to another, ie failing to increase their wage on the worker’s 18th birthday.