The first ‘naming and shaming’ list since the Fair Work Agency (FWA) took over the enforcement of the national minimum wage has been released.
The list, now on round 24, provides the names of businesses who are found to have failed to pay at least the minimum wage to its workers, along with details of how many workers were underpaid and the amount of underpayment.
In this round, 658 employers were named for underpaying more than 27,000 workers in total. The report also shows a total of around £7 million in penalties have been issued, with these fines coming on top of employers having to make good the unpaid wages.
The top reasons found for underpayment were:
deductions or reductions that reduced pay
failure to pay workers correctly for their working time
failure to pay the uprated minimum wage or the correct rate to apprentices.
Minister for the Future of Work, Kate Dearden, said: “Underpaying your staff is illegal, and we will not let workers foot the bill for their boss failing to follow the rules.
“We’re making sure workers get the hard-earned pay they deserve, and where employers fall short, they will be held to account.”
Naming and shaming is one part of a wider group of measures currently taken against employers who underpay workers. It also includes paying the worker what they are owed at the rate in place when the enforcement happened rather than the rate in place at the time of the underpayment and paying a fine to the Government.
The Fair Work Agency was established in April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and is the new state enforcement body for workplace rights in areas such as minimum wage (although currently this is contracted out to HMRC, the FWA is expected to fully take over NMW enforcement from April 2027), conduct of employment agencies and modern slavery. It will, in time, begin state enforcement of statutory sick pay and holiday pay.
