FIVE hotels in Dorset and Hampshire are among 260 employers ‘named and shamed’ by the UK government for paying staff less than the legal minimum wage.

The hotels joined Central Southern Security Limited in the New Forest, Bournemouth Brewing Group, Subway South, based in Bournemouth’s Wimborne Road, and Atlas Property Management Limited, trading as Taylor Viscount Estate Agents on the list, which revealed 16,000 UK workers had not received at least the minimum wage.

The Pines Hotel in Purbeck, failed to pay £20,557 to 15 of its workers, said the government. In nearby Stoborough, one employee at the Springfield Country Hotel missed out on £262, while the Trouville Hotel in Bournemouth failed to pay £781 to 11 workers.

The Manor At Sway in the New Forest failed to pay £1,165 to two workers and Bournemouth Brewing Group, based in Poole, failed to pay £11,387 to one of its workers.

In a statement Bournemouth Brewing Group said: “We fully complied with the HMRC investigation and the matter has been fully settled.”

The Daily Echo called The Pines but was told the owners were declining to comment.

Hospitality businesses make up the largest proportion of those failing to pay workers correctly, with 288 workers in 58 businesses affected, said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Hairdressing and then retail were the next largest group of employers to fall foul of the law which has fined them £1.3 million in total, with BEIS identifying £1.7m in back-pay owed to 16,000 workers.

BEIS said yesterday’s figures showed the highest number of employees affected since it first published the list in 2013, as part of its strategy to ensure workers receive the pay to which they are entitled.

Business minister Margot James said: “There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to and the government will come down hard on businesses that break the rules.”

The current minimum wage rates are:

• National Living Wage (25 years and over): £7.50 per hour

• National Minimum Wage for 21 to 24-year-olds: £7.05 per hour

• National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year olds: £5.60 per hour

• National Minimum Wage for 16 to 17-year-olds: £4.05 per hour

• National Minimum Wage for apprentices under 19, or over 19 and in the first year of an apprenticeship: £3.50 per hour