The government have published figures for the 2017-2018 tax year which show that the number of workers who have received back pay due to underpayments of the minimum wage has more than doubled since the previous year.
The figures suggest that HMRC discovered £15.6 million owed to more than 200,000 workers. In the previous tax year, they identified £10.9 million owed to 98,000 workers.
HMRC launched an online complaint service in January 2017 and attributes the positive increase to this. This recent development also coincides with campaigns encouraging workers to report their employers for underpaying minimum wage.
Employers are reminded to exercise caution in this area particularly when there is a complex payroll system and/or workers with irregular working patterns.