Only three out of 700 firms prosecuted for paying below minimum wage
I do find this a surprising statistic. I suspect due to the prevalence of the informal economy in rural areas there are very many people trading off being able to get by in a place they love for less than the minimum wage who go below the radar. This story tells us:
Just three employers have been prosecuted for paying workers below the minimum wage despite HM Revenue and Customs finding 700 who have broken the law in the past two and a half years.
Since February 2014, the government has “named and shamed” 700 employers who have underpaid more than 13,000 workers by over £3.5m. But less than a quarter of a percent of them have been prosecuted under laws that in theory provide for prison sentences in the most extreme cases of wilful non-compliance.
The business minister, Margot James, who has responsibility for the enforcement of low pay laws has conceded that the prosecution rate is “a small number” and is “an issue that causes me concern”.
According to the National Audit Office, the number of workers identified as being owed arrears more than doubled from 2014-15 to 2015-16, rising from 26,000 to 58,000.
James cited the high costs of prosecution and delays that prosecutions cause in securing back pay for affected workers as deterrents to bringing criminal cases.
But Frank Field, the Labour chairman of the House of Commons work and pensions select committee, said the lack of prosecutions showed the government is letting law breaking employers off the hook.