Skip to main content

Supermarkets: Minimum Wage

Question for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

UIN HL12619, tabled on 26 January 2021

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compliance of large supermarket companies with minimum wage requirements.

Answered on

9 February 2021

We are clear that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage should receive it and we will take action where employers have been found to be in breach of the law. In 2019/20, HM Revenue & Customs identified £20.8 million in arrears for over 263,000 workers and issued just under 1,000 penalties totalling £18.5 million to non-compliant employers. In addition, on 31st December 2020 the Government named 139 employers, including 18 retailers, who had failed to pay the minimum wage and owed over £5 million to more than 80,000 workers. This demonstrates our continued commitment to our clear and consistent message that it is never acceptable for employers to short-change their employees.

Answered by

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy