The government has published a report on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW), detailing evidence on compliance and enforcement in 2017/18. The report reveals the following key statistics for 2017/18:

• A record £15.6 million was identified in NMW/NLW underpayments, benefitting over 200,000 UK workers – this is more than double the number of underpaid workers compared to 2016/17 and represents the highest number of workers being underpaid since the NMW
came into force.
• Employers were fined an unprecedented £14 million for not meeting their NMW/NLW obligations.
• More than 600 employers were named and shamed as part of the government’s “naming and shaming” scheme for NMW/NLW enforcement.
• HMRC followed a “risk based” approach using a variety of techniques to promote worker and employer awareness, including texts to “at risk” workers, webinars and employer guidance, advertising and media campaigns and targeted case work.

• Nine out of ten workers are now aware of the NLW, two years after its introduction.
• There was a 71% increase in the number of workers contacting HMRC and ACAS about the NMW/NLW.

Government funding for minimum wage enforcement will be £26.3 million in 2018/19, compared to £20 million in 2016/17.

Source: New feed