A number of charities have been named by the government after being found to have not paid at least one of their employees the legal minimum wage.
Marine Society and Sea Cadets, Coventry Education and Welfare Trust; Action for Children Developments Limited (a subsidiary of Action for Children), and Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited (a subsidiary of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust) were all found to have underpaid employees.
Around 660 employers overall were named by the government this week for failing to pay staff the minimum wage, with a total of £4m now returned directly to 27,000 workers.
Marine Society and Sea Cadets, Action for Children and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust all told Civil Society they had since repaid the affected employees.
The current legal minimum wage rate for those aged 21 and over as of April 2026 stands at £12.71; for those aged 18 to 20, it stands at £10.85.
Apologies made
Marine Society and Sea Cadets failed to pay £562 to four workers.
A charity spokesperson said: “These resulted from administrative errors, largely relating to salary-sacrifice pension arrangements.
“We contacted and apologised to those affected and repaid all arrears within 14 days of receiving HMRC’s formal notification in September 2024.
“We have since changed our payroll provider, introduced monthly checks for potential underpayments and amended our processes. We regret these errors and have strengthened our controls to prevent a recurrence.”
Action for Children Developments Limited failed to pay £2,631 to one worker.
A spokesperson for Action for Children said: “This was an isolated administrative error involving one employee and we apologised to the person involved.
“We ensured all arrears were paid and have reviewed our processes to prevent any reoccurrence.”
Work clothes issue
Staffordshire Wildlife Trading Limited failed to pay £2,628 to 45 workers.
Christine Harding, senior marketing and comms officer at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, told Civil Society: “Following a routine payroll audit by HMRC in 2025, they identified that we had asked employees working in our café to provide some of their own work clothes.
“Under national minimum wage rules, this request introduced costs for some employees that reduced their pay below the legal threshold. As soon as we were made aware of the issue, we took immediate action.
“We reimbursed all affected current and former employees and reviewed our processes to ensure compliance going forward.”
Coventry Education and Welfare Trust failed to pay £4,273 to one worker, and has not yet responded to a request for comment.
