Did you know that if you fail to meet the National Minimum Wage that not only will you have to pay the employees affected compensation, you will also be subject to a fine under the tougher amended naming and shaming scheme that came into effect on 1 October 2013.
As well as being publicly named and shamed, employers who fail to pay their workers the NMW face higher financial penalties of 100% of the unpaid wages owed to workers with a maximum penalty of £20,000 from 7 March 2014.
The NMW Regulations 2014 provides for a Notice of Underpayment issued by HMRC to require the employer to pay a financial penalty to the Secretary of State. The financial penalty is calculated as a percentage of the total underpayment of the NMW for all workers as set out in the Notice of Underpayment. This percentage has been amended from 50% to 100% of the total underpayments, and also increases the figure for the maximum financial penalty from £5,000 to £20,000.
So the advice here is make sure you meet the NMW as the absolute minimum and ideally make sure you are paying a living wage. In the long run this will prove to be not only the legally right thing to be doing but will avoid negative publicity for you and your business and will show you to be an employer of integrity.
To get the latest NMW rates visit:
https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
For more information about the 'living wage' visit:
http://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-living-wage
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