In early September, the United Kingdom's newly formed Fair Work Agency publicly named 658 employers — from household retail giants to NHS trusts — for paying workers below the legal minimum wage, returning £4 million in back pay and levying £7 million in penalties. The action marks the agency's first formal naming round since its creation under new employment rights legislation, and signals a broader shift in how the state intends to hold employers accountable for wage compliance. Behind the corporate explanations of technical errors and payroll miscalculations lie thousands of workers — care
Over 600 UK firms named for underpaying staff below minimum wage
Over 600 workers across multiple sectors received underpayment of wages, affecting thousands of employees including care workers, retail staff, and NHS apprentices.
Underpaying your staff is illegal, and we will not let workers foot the bill
Mark
What strikes me most is that this isn't just small operators cutting corners—B&Q, Five Guys, NHS trusts. How does a major retailer or a hospital system accidentally underpay hundreds of workers?
Mimi
The explanations they gave are actually revealing. B&Q says it was geographical allowances—they were calculating the base rate correctly but not properly layering in the location-based supplements. It's a systems problem, not malice, but it's still a systems problem that affected thousands of people's paychecks.
Luke
Right, but we should be careful here. B&Q says it was unintentional. The government named them. We don't have independent verification of what actually happened in their payroll system or how long it went on. The source doesn't tell us that.
Mark
Fair point. What about the NHS trusts? They're saying their workers weren't actually underpaid because gross salary was above minimum wage—it's just that salary sacrifice deductions weren't counted.
Mimi
That's a genuine technical issue under the law. If you're deducting money for childcare or other benefits, that money still counts toward minimum wage for legal purposes. The trusts didn't account for that. But the trusts are pushing back hard on the framing—they're saying no colleagues were underpaid, which is technically true if you look at gross pay, but legally false if you look at how minimum wage is calculated.
Luke
And that's where the story gets murky. The government named them. The trusts deny wrongdoing. We have two competing narratives, and the source material doesn't resolve which interpretation the law actually supports. We know the Fair Work Agency decided to name them, but we don't know the legal reasoning.
Mark
So what's the real story here—is this about systemic negligence, or is it about technical compliance gaps that most employers don't even know exist?
Mimi
Probably both. The scale suggests negligence—4,530 workers at B&Q, 3,699 at Five Guys. That's not a rounding error. But the explanations also suggest that payroll compliance is genuinely complicated, especially for large employers with multiple locations and benefit structures.
Luke
The one thing we can say with certainty is that £4 million went back to workers and £7 million in penalties were issued. That's concrete. What we can't say is whether this represents a crackdown on widespread abuse or a clarification of rules that employers genuinely misunderstood.
Mark
And the Fair Work Agency is new—April 2025. Is this naming round a sign of things to come?
Mimi
Almost certainly. They've signaled they're moving next into holiday pay and sick pay denial. This is the opening move of a more aggressive enforcement posture.
O Pulso
- 658 employers across retail, hospitality, healthcare, and social care have been publicly named for underpaying staff — a reputational and financial reckoning that signals the government is no longer treating wage theft as a quiet administrative matter.
- The violations range from a DIY giant miscalculating geographical allowances to NHS trusts failing to count uniform-changing time as paid work, revealing how systemic underpayment can hide inside the fine print of payroll systems.
- Over £4 million has been returned to workers, but the £7 million in penalties imposed on employers sends a deliberate message: the cost of non-compliance now exceeds the cost of getting it right.
- Ministers are urging every employer in the country to audit their payroll immediately, as the Fair Work Agency prepares to expand its enforcement reach into holiday pay and sick pay violations.
- The agency has framed this first naming round as a warning shot — more businesses should expect scrutiny, and the era of quiet non-enforcement appears to be over.
In early September, the United Kingdom's newly formed Fair Work Agency publicly named 658 employers — from household retail giants to NHS trusts — for paying workers below the legal minimum wage, returning £4 million in back pay and levying £7 million in penalties. The action marks the agency's first formal naming round since its creation under new employment rights legislation, and signals a broader shift in how the state intends to hold employers accountable for wage compliance. Behind the corporate explanations of technical errors and payroll miscalculations lie thousands of workers — care staff, apprentices, restaurant employees — whose livelihoods depended on wages they were quietly, if sometimes inadvertently, denied. The government has made clear this is not an ending, but an opening move.
The UK government has publicly named 658 employers for paying workers below the legal minimum wage, in the first enforcement action of its kind since the Fair Work Agency began operations in April. Across these businesses, £4 million in back pay has been returned to workers, while the employers themselves face £7 million in combined penalties.
The list cuts across nearly every sector of the economy. B&Q, the DIY retailer, underpaid 4,530 workers nearly £457,000 due to errors in how geographical allowances were calculated. Five Guys underpaid 3,699 staff members over £54,000, citing technical differences in payroll regulation. Care homes, nurseries, and several NHS trusts also appear — institutions whose workers are among the most essential and least protected. Elysium Healthcare Holdings owed over £330,000 to more than 1,000 workers. Most employers attributed the violations to unintentional errors and said affected staff have since been paid in full.
The NHS cases drew particular attention. Two London hospital trusts together underpaid 130 workers more than £200,000 — not because gross pay fell below the minimum wage, but because salary sacrifice deductions for childcare benefits were incorrectly excluded from the calculation. Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust acknowledged that apprentices were underpaid between 2019 and 2023 because time spent in meetings, handovers, and changing into uniform was not counted as paid working time.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described the action as a statement of principle, while minister Kate Dearden was unambiguous: underpaying staff is illegal, and the government will not allow workers to absorb the cost of their employer's failures. The Fair Work Agency's advisory chair echoed the message, noting that compliance with minimum wage law is not optional and that robust enforcement will follow those who fall short.
The agency has signalled that this naming round is only the beginning. Enforcement will soon extend to the denial of holiday pay and sick pay — rights that, like the minimum wage, are legally guaranteed but frequently withheld. The 658 businesses named represent the first wave of a regime that intends to be considerably more vigilant.
The government has named 658 UK employers for systematically underpaying their staff below the legal minimum wage. The enforcement action, announced in early September, represents the first public naming round since the Fair Work Agency began operations in April under new employment rights legislation. Across these businesses, workers were owed £4 million in back pay, which has now been returned to them. The employers themselves face £7 million in combined penalties.
The list spans nearly every sector of the British economy. Household names appear alongside smaller operators: B&Q, the DIY retailer, underpaid 4,530 workers a total of £456,934. Five Guys, the American fast food chain with UK locations, underpaid 3,699 staff members £54,642. But the roster also includes care homes, nurseries, social care providers, and several NHS trusts—institutions that employ some of the country's most vulnerable workers and those who care for them. Elysium Healthcare Holdings, a care provider, topped the list after B&Q, owing £330,048 to 1,095 workers. Forest Holidays owed £100,308 to 598 employees. The government did not disclose the time period over which these underpayments occurred.
The current minimum wage stands at £12.71 per hour for workers aged 21 and over. For 18 to 20 year olds it is £10.85, and for under 18s and apprentices it is £8. The violations ranged from straightforward calculation errors to more opaque technical compliance failures. B&Q attributed its shortfall to how it handled geographical allowances—additional payments made on top of the base minimum wage rate. The company said the underpayments were unintentional and that all affected workers were paid in full in July 2025. Five Guys similarly blamed "technical differences in how payroll regulations were applied" and said it worked transparently with HMRC, the UK's tax authority, to resolve the matter.
The NHS trusts named in the enforcement action offered their own explanations. St George's, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Wandsworth together underpaid 130 workers more than £200,000. A spokesman for both trusts denied that colleagues were underpaid, instead characterizing the issue as a technical compliance problem. The trusts had failed to count salary sacrifice deductions—money withheld for childcare or other benefits—toward the minimum wage calculation, even though workers' gross pay exceeded the legal floor. Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust acknowledged that apprentices were inadvertently underpaid between 2019 and 2023 because the trust had not accounted for time spent in meetings, handovers, and changing into uniform when calculating their hourly rate against minimum wage requirements. The trust said it has since changed its policies.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds framed the enforcement action as a marker of the government's commitment to protecting workers. "The best businesses know that looking after your workers isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," he said. Kate Dearden, minister for the future of work, was more direct: "Underpaying your staff is illegal, and we will not let workers foot the bill for their boss failing to follow the rules." She urged all employers to audit their payroll systems immediately and to contact Acas, the workplace advisory service, if they needed guidance on compliance.
Matthew Taylor, chair of the Fair Work Agency's advisory board, said the naming round served as a public reminder that minimum wage compliance is not discretionary. "Most employers want to do the right thing, and we will support them to comply, but those who fall short should expect robust enforcement to protect workers and maintain a fair playing field for responsible businesses," he said. The agency's mandate extends beyond minimum wage enforcement. It will soon begin tackling other violations: the denial of holiday pay and sick pay to workers who are legally entitled to both. The 658 businesses named represent only the first wave of enforcement under the new regime, and the agency has signaled that more rigorous oversight lies ahead.
Citações Notáveis
The shortfalls in payments were unintentional. They relate to calculations involving geographical allowances which are paid in addition to minimum hourly rates.— B&Q statement
Paying the minimum wage is not optional—it is the law.— Matthew Taylor, chair of Fair Work Agency advisory board
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Economy & Finance