Minimum Wage: Non-payment

(asked on 27th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) current and (b) former employees have contacted the national minimum wage unit in relation to alleged non-compliance by their employer in each month in each of the last three years.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 30th January 2020

The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.

All businesses, irrespective of size or business sector, are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff.

If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints .

The Government has more than trebled annual funding for minimum wage enforcement since 2014, providing a total budget of £26.3m in 2018-19. The additional investment has enabled a significant expansion of resources dedicated to enforcing the NMW.

The table below provides a breakdown of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff working in NMW enforcement, by month, for the last 3 years.

Other staff across HMRC also contribute to enforcing the NMW, including lawyers, technical advisors and those specialising in criminal investigations. These staff are not included in these numbers.

2016-2017

2017-2018

2018-2019

April

256

388

403

May

257

389

399

June

270

395

402

July

269

394

419

August

271

396

418

September

279

395

424

October

288

394

424

November

287

393

438

December

321

390

435

January

350

409

421

February

346

415

424

March

352

412

429

HMRC do not specifically record data on current and former employees when logging complaints. The table below shows the total number of complaints received from workers by HMRC, for each month, for the last 3 years.

2016-2017

2017-2018

2018-2019

April

143

414

808

May

236

310

611

June

175

299

598

July

206

454

617

August

165

341

213

September

176

342

342

October

219

501

302

November

154

626

287

December

147

550

331

January

174

665

266

February

313

754

297

March

465

771

252

Total

2573

6027

4924

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