A fresh government naming round has put several retailers and consumer-facing businesses under scrutiny after hundreds of firms were found to have underpaid workers.
The Department for Business and Trade has named 389 employers for failing to pay the minimum wage, with total underpayments amounting to £7.3m and financial penalties reaching £12.6m.
Around 60,000 workers were affected, according to the government.
Among the retail and consumer brands named were Costa, Hays Travel, Hovis, B&M Retail, Poundstretcher, Harvey Nichols and Sandersons Department Stores, alongside a number of hospitality, care and leisure operators.
Costa was one of the most prominent retail names on the list, having failed to pay £149,851.25 to 2,759 workers.
Hays Travel underpaid 2,463 employees by £364,103.51, while Hovis failed to pay £84,676.19 to 119 workers.
B&M Retail was listed for underpaying one worker by £3,304.80, and Poundstretcher was found to have underpaid 16 workers by £1,448.89.
The publication of the list marks the first such naming round since Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged at last year’s Budget to more regularly identify companies that breach wage rules.
It also lands at a time when retail employers are already facing rising cost pressures, with further increases to statutory pay rates due from next month.
Business secretary Peter Kyle said: “The vast majority of businesses in this country do the right thing by paying their staff properly and playing by the rules. It’s not fair on them when others are able to get ahead by not paying the wages their workers are owed.”
For retailers, the latest enforcement action is a sharp reminder of the compliance risks attached to large hourly-paid workforces, particularly where pay arrangements intersect with uniforms, shift patterns, deductions and payroll systems.
In several of the better-known cases, businesses said the underpayments were linked to historic technical issues rather than deliberate wage suppression.
Costa, Hays Travel and other companies named in the round said the shortfalls had been identified and rectified, with affected workers reimbursed.
The Mirror reported that some cases related to deductions or costs associated with uniforms, an issue that has repeatedly surfaced in previous minimum wage investigations.
Employment rights minister Kate Dearden said: “Nobody should finish a week’s work and find they’ve been paid less than they’ve earned. I believe in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That’s why we’re cracking down on employers who underpay.”
While the largest underpayments in the list were concentrated in facilities management, childcare and care services, the presence of multiple retail and retail-adjacent brands is likely to keep pressure on the sector, particularly as employer brand and staff retention remain high on the agenda.
The issue is especially sensitive for retailers because many are competing aggressively for frontline labour while also trying to protect margins in an inflationary environment.
Any failure to meet minimum wage rules carries not only financial penalties, but also reputational risk at a time when trust, transparency and treatment of workers are coming under greater scrutiny.
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