Lidl among companies named for minimum wage pay failures

The Department for Business and Trade found a total of nearly 60,000 people had been left out of pocket by the companies underpaying staff over several years. 

They released a list of 518 employers and businesses that underpaid workers over several years.

It means pay for some staff fell short of the national minimum wage, or the national living wage, which is what the Government calls the minimum wage for those aged over 21.

Pizza Express, Lidl, British Airways and Capita apologise for failing to pay minimum wage

Capita, one of the government’s biggest suppliers, was top of the list, owing £1.15m to 5,543 workers.

This meant individual employees were underpaid about £208 on average.

Capita said it was “inadvertent underpayments” between 2015 and 2021, due to some issues, including adding 25 minutes per week for call centre staff to log in for their shifts.

It added: “All owed monies were paid immediately, and we are sorry for any impact this had on colleagues and former colleagues at that time.”

Meanwhile, Pizza Express failed to pay £760,702 to 8,470 workers, amounting to about £90 per person on average.

In a statement, they said: “Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012 and 2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified.”

British Airways was named for failing to pay £231,276 to 2,165 workers.

A spokesman for BA said: “Back in 2017, an audit revealed we had accidentally slightly underpaid some of our cabin crew who joined us between 2014 and 2017 during their first two months of employment.

“We apologised and issued backdated payments several years ago.”

Lidl was also high on the list, having owed £286,437 to 3,423 employees, and they have been contacted by Newsquest for comment.

Restaurant chain Prezzo, motoring and cycling retailer Halfords, and travel group Tui were also found to have been underpaying some workers over several years.

All the workers left short will be repaid a combined £7.4 million, following investigations by HMRC between 2015 and 2022.

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What is the difference between living wage and the minimum wage?

The minimum wage is the minimum pay per hour most workers under the age of 20 are entitled to, while the living wage is the minimum pay per hour most workers aged 21 and over are entitled to by law.

The national living wage was £11.44 in the year to the end of March, and has risen to £12.21 since April.

The minimum wage for 18-20-year-olds rose to £10 this year, and for those aged under 18 it rose to £7.55.