HMRC listed 139 companies, including major household names, that short-changed their employees and have been fined. The firms have failed to pay a total of £6.7m to more than 95,000 workers. The companies were all investigated between 2016 and 2018 but the latest list was published on December 31. One of the main causes of minimum wage breaches was low-paid employees being made to cover work costs, which would eat into their pay packet, such as paying for uniform, training or parking fees. Also, some employers failed to raise employees’ pay after they had a birthday which should have moved them into a different National Minimum Wage bracket for example a 17-year-old turning 18.