Ministers reveal worst excuses for not paying the minimum wage

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) has published a list of the nine worst excuses given to HMRC investigators, as part of a campaign to raise awareness of pay law.

Other reasons submitted by employers include “my accountant and I speak a different language” and “my employee is still learning”, with one even claiming their workers are foreign and therefore not entitled to the going rate.

While one states their employee “only makes the teas and sweeps the floors” and therefore does not “deserve” the national minimum wage.

By law, businesses must pay any worker over the age of 16 at least £4 an hour, with the basic rate increasing according to age until 25, where it is set at £7.20 an hour. But last year DBEIS named and shamed 200 UK business found to have underpaid their workers, with some owing individual employees more than £3,500 in wages.

The department’s new campaign encourages workers to check their pay, ahead of minimum and living wage increase on April 1. Business Minister Margot James said: “There are no excuses for underpaying staff what they are legally entitled to... We are determined to make sure everybody in work receives a fair wage.”