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UK names over 600 employers including B&Q and Five Guys for minimum wage underpayments

The Department for Business and Trade ordered businesses to return £4 million in wages and issued £7 million in penalties in the first enforcement list since the Fair Work Agency launched.

Updated Sep 3, 2026 · 00:18 UTC1 reports

The short version

  • The UK government published a list of 658 employers—including major retail, hospitality, childcare, and healthcare organizations—that failed to pay the legal minimum wage.
  • A total of £4 million has been returned to affected workers, alongside £7 million in government fines imposed on the noncompliant firms.
  • Prominent employers such as B&Q, Five Guys, and NHS trusts attributed the shortfalls to unintentional technical payroll issues, salary sacrifice schemes, and allowance calculations.
  • This enforcement action represents the first public naming round conducted since the Fair Work Agency was created in April.

Key facts

  • The Department for Business and Trade identified 658 employers that underpaid staff, ordering £4 million in back pay and levying £7 million in financial penalties.[BBC News]
  • B&Q was ranked highest on the list for unpaid wages, underpaying 4,530 employees by a combined £456,934.72, which the retailer said resulted from calculations regarding geographical allowances and was repaid in July 2025.[BBC News]
  • Five Guys owed £54,642.47 across 3,699 workers, attributing the shortfall to technical payroll differences identified during an HM Revenue and Customs review.[BBC News]
  • Multiple NHS hospital trusts were included on the list, with representatives citing technical issues with salary sacrifice deductions or uncounted shift handover and uniform-changing time.[BBC News]
  • The naming round is the first since the Fair Work Agency was established in April under the Employment Rights Act.[BBC News]

What remains uncertain

  • The specific multi-year timeframes during which the underpayments occurred across all 658 named employers were not detailed by the government.[BBC News]

Sources