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A record £2m in back pay will go to 13,000 of Britain’s lowest paid workers after 233 employers were caught cheating them of the minimum wage.

As well as ‘naming and shaming’ the employers the government has fined them £1.9m for illegally under-paying workers.

Retail, hairdressing and hospitality businesses were among the worst offenders, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Since 2013, the scheme to ‘name and shame’ bad bosses has identified £6m back pay for 40,000 workers, with 1,200 employers fined £4m.

Scroll down for the full list of firms

Government investigators found in this round employers had been deducting money from pay packets to pay for uniforms, failing to account for overtime hours, and wrongly paying apprentice rates to workers.

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Business Minister Margot James said:“It is against the law to pay workers less than legal minimum wage rates, short-changing ordinary working people and undercutting honest employers.

“Today’s naming round identifies a record £2m of back pay for workers and sends the clear message to employers that the government will come down hard on those who break the law.”

One of the worst offenders named in the latest round is catalogue giant Argos, which failed to pay £1,461,881.78 to 12,176 workers.

Earlier this year the retail giant was fined £1.5m and forced to repay £2.4m in wages to 37,000 current and former shop workers after an HMRC investigation.

The underpayments of about £64 per person date back to 2014 and were first uncovered last year ahead of Argos’s takeover by Sainsbury’s.

(Image: Google Maps) (Image: Google Maps)

In a letter to staff, John Rogers, who became boss of Argos after it was acquired by Sainsbury’s last year, said the issue had been uncovered by tax inspectors as part of a “routine visit” and he had been informed after Sainsbury’s had acquired the business. “Unexpected things do come up as we get to grips with the business,” he added.

Tax officers are currently investigating a further 2,000 cases and the businesses wil be ‘named and shamed’ when the files are closed.

The government will be spending £25m on minimum wage enforecement next year. The current minimum wage rates are: National Living Wage (25 years and over) - £7.50 per hour adult rate of National Minimum Wage (21 to 24-year-olds) - £7.05 per hour.

(Image: Google Maps) (Image: Google Maps)

In a breakdown of the 223 businesses three areas were prominent;-

Hairdressing and beauty treatments: around 60 employers, around £121,000 arrears for around 200 workers.

Hospitality: around 50 employers, around £77,000 arrears for around 220 workers.

Retail trade: around 20 employers, £1.5m arrears for around 12,200 workers.

Melissa Tatton, Director at HM Revenue and Customs said: “HMRC is committed to getting money back into the pockets of underpaid workers, and continues to crack down on employers who ignore the law.

“Those not paying workers the National Minimum or Living Wage can expect to face the consequences.”

Here's the full list of companies named and shamed for failing to pay the minimum wage