Firms named and shamed for failing to pay minimum wage

But employers have told the Express & Star they were either 'genuine mistakes' or disputed payments to absentee workers.

One, a hairdresser in Walsall, broke down in tears as she said her treatment by the HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, was putting her off taking on any more apprentices.

ABC Early Learning and Childcare Centre, a day nursery based on Wolverhampton Business Park, was said to have neglected to pay £5,329.25 to 68 workers.

Diva Hair Design in Walsall was named for having not paid £4,103.65 to a worker while West Bromwich-based Learnplay Foundation was named for failing to pay £224.73.

Kelly Lockley, who runs Diva Hair Design in High Street, Pelsall, was devastated to have been named.

The 36-year-old said: "I had a trainee through a college. No-one had told me that after 12 months her wage had to go up.

"It wasn't working out and she left. I paid her as soon as it came to light that she should have been on more.

"This is the only time in 15 years that something like this has happened and I am being treated like a criminal. It's putting me off taking another trainee on."

Mrs Lockley said her full time hairdressers all earn well above the national minimum of £6.50 an hour for an adult aged over 21 or £5.13 for an 18 to 20-year-old.

Emma Catton, director of ABC Early Learning and Childcare Centre said: "We pay the National Minimum Wage and above. Following receipt of bad advice from our advisors an error was made which was not deliberate. We are extremely sorry that this happened."

Learnplay Foundation, a not for profit digital media company, was on the list for having 'neglected to pay £224.73 to a worker'.

Managing director Ro Hands said the organisation paid the individial £192.01 more than they believed was owed for the number of hours worked.

Business minister Jo Swinson said: "Paying less than the minimum wage is illegal, immoral and completely unacceptable. If employers break this law they need to know that we will take tough action by naming, shaming and fining them as well as helping workers recover the hundreds of thousands of pounds in pay owed to them."