Nearly a decade after the national minimum wage (NMW) was introduced on 1 April 1999, the TUC has calculated that at least 1.5 million workers are still being cheated out of it by dishonest employers.
Although almost £4 million was recovered last year, the TUC estimates that hundreds of thousands of workers are still taking less money home than the law says they should be.
To try to help track down rogue employers who are deliberately avoiding paying their adult staff £5.73 an hour, the TUC last week published an updated edition of its enforcement guide to the NMW. First published in 2001 “Enforcing the National Minimum Wage” sets out how unions and advice workers can make sure all workers are earning the NMW.
The guide points out that often all that is needed to make an employer start paying the NMW is for a union or an adviser to bring non-payment to their attention. But more unwilling employers will need the involvement of HM Revenue and Customs before they pay their workers the legal minimum.
Workers being cheated out of the minimum wage are most likely to be in London, the North West and Merseyside, or the South East, and employed in hotels, bars and restaurants, retail or hairdressing.