Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of national minimum wage compliance in the catering sector.
This Government is committed to cracking down on employers who fail to pay the National Minimum and Living Wage (NMW). We almost doubled HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) budget to enforce the NMW from £13.2 million to £26.3 million between 2015/16 and 2018/19.
This increase in resources enabled HMRC to identify a record £15.6 million of arrears for more than 200,000 workers in 2017/18. These totals include arrears worth £469,468 owed to 6,526 workers in relation to food and beverage service employers.
In addition to undertaking proactive enforcement work in high risk sectors, HMRC respond to each and every worker complaint received. In April 2016, the financial penalty paid by employers was doubled to 200% of the arrears identified, up to a maximum of £20,000 per worker.