Six Brighton & Hove employers underpaid 23 workers £9,450.70, government figures published on 3 September show. Five of the six are hospitality businesses.

Six Brighton & Hove employers have been named by the government for failing to pay their staff the minimum wage, between them owing £9,450.70 to 23 workers. That is more named employers than any other local authority in the South East in this round. Five of the six are hospitality businesses: a takeaway, a pub and three restaurants or cafes.

The figures come from the Round 24 naming list, published on 3 September 2026 by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. It is the first naming round since the Fair Work Agency took over enforcement of workers’ rights in April.

Nationally, 658 employers were named. They owed £4.25 million to 27,617 workers, and the government says penalties totalling £7 million were issued (Round 24 Naming Publication Spreadsheet).

Bar chart of wage arrears owed by six Brighton and Hove employers named in Round 24 of the National Minimum Wage naming scheme, from Dosa Kingdom Ltd at £2,341.92 down to Sumatra Ltd at £508.01

Who is on the list

The spreadsheet gives each employer’s name, trading name where one is recorded, the partial postcode of its trading address, the sector, the arrears, the number of workers and the period the arrears cover. The six with Brighton & Hove trading addresses are:

  • Dosa Kingdom Ltd, BN3, takeaway food shops and mobile food stands. £2,341.92 owed to 5 workers, an average of £468.38 each, for the period 1 January to 31 August 2024.
  • Neonify Limited, BN2, other information technology service activities. £2,116.36 owed to 1 worker, for October 2024 alone.
  • Saint James Tavern Ltd, BN2, public houses and bars. £1,895.05 owed to 10 workers, an average of £189.51 each, for 1 May 2021 to 30 September 2022.
  • Sundari Foods Limited, trading as Vel Brighton, BN2, licensed restaurants. £1,430.03 owed to 2 workers, for 1 April to 31 August 2023.
  • RFG Brighton Limited, trading as Kaspa’s Desserts, BN1, unlicensed restaurants and cafes. £1,159.33 owed to 1 worker, for 3 to 30 July 2023.
  • Sumatra Ltd, trading as Longrain Theatre, BN1, licensed restaurants. £508.01 owed to 4 workers, an average of £127 each, for March 2024.

The arrears in this round are historic. The earliest period begins in May 2021 and the latest ends in October 2024, and the money has already been repaid: employers are named after HM Revenue and Customs has investigated and required them to pay their workers back, with a penalty on top.

Two of the six companies no longer exist

Being named does not tell you whether a business is still trading, and in two cases the company behind it has already gone.

Companies House records Dosa Kingdom Ltd (company number 14943899), registered at 7 Boundary Road, Hove, as dissolved on 22 April 2025. Sumatra Ltd (14870378), registered at 31 to 32 New Road, Brighton, was dissolved on 18 March 2025.

The other four companies remain on the register. Neonify Limited (14021478) gives its registered office as Plus X Brighton on Lewes Road; Sundari Foods Limited (12017623) is at 51 St George’s Road, Brighton; RFG Brighton Limited (11868016) is at 146 North Street, Brighton. Saint James Tavern Ltd (12826801) appears on the naming list with a BN2 trading address, but its registered office at Companies House is in Colliers Wood, south London.

One caution the government itself flags: the geography in the list comes from the postcode of the employer’s trading address, and “in some cases, this may not be where the minimum wage underpayment occurred” (Round 24 educational bulletin).

More than any other South East council area

Seventy-eight of the 658 employers named in this round have trading addresses in the South East, owing just under £1.12 million to 6,369 workers. Brighton & Hove has six of them, ahead of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes on four each, and Eastbourne, Reigate and Banstead, Mole Valley, Horsham and Maidstone on three.

That is a count of employers, not a measure of how much was underpaid. The Brighton total of £9,450.70 is small next to the largest single case in the round: B&Q, registered in Eastleigh, owed £456,934.72 to 4,530 workers.

Hospitality dominates the local list, and it is the second largest category nationally too. Of the 658 employers named, 188 are classed as non low-paying or other, 148 are hospitality and 102 are retail. It is the same trade that fills the other public register we report on regularly, the food hygiene ratings.

Why employers underpay

The bulletin published alongside the list sets out the reasons found across the round. It does not say which reason applied to which employer, so none of these can be attached to a particular Brighton business.

  • 39% made deductions or reductions that took pay below the minimum wage (257 employers). Examples given include uniform, food, parking permits, training costs, till shortages and salary sacrifice schemes.
  • 34% failed to pay workers correctly for their working time (221). This covers work before and after a shift, rounding clock-in times, unpaid travel time, trial shifts, mandatory training and overtime.
  • 16% failed to pay the uprated minimum wage (104), either after the annual April increase or when a worker had a birthday that moved them into a higher band.
  • 103 applied the wrong rate to apprentices, including paying the apprentice rate to someone aged over 19 who had finished the first year.
  • 71 got the accommodation offset wrong, charging more for accommodation than the offset allows.

What it means for you

If you work in Brighton & Hove, the rates that apply now took effect in April 2026 and are set out on gov.uk:

  • £12.71 an hour if you are 21 or over, the National Living Wage
  • £10.85 an hour if you are 18 to 20
  • £8.00 an hour if you are under 18, or an apprentice aged under 19 or in the first year of an apprenticeship

The list above is the most common way people are short-changed without noticing. If you are paid for a nine-hour shift but told to arrive fifteen minutes early to set up, or you buy your own uniform, or your pay did not move in April, your hourly rate may have fallen below the legal minimum even though your payslip looks correct.

You can check your pay and make a complaint through gov.uk/checkyourpay, or get free and confidential advice from Acas. For the wider picture of work in the city, we track the monthly claimant count for Brighton & Hove. Complaints can be made anonymously, and an employer cannot lawfully treat you worse for raising one. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in the announcement that “short-changing your staff isn’t a shortcut to success and we are determined to stamp it out”.

The list records what HM Revenue and Customs found, and nothing else. It carries no explanation from the employer, and the government does not publish the individual investigations behind it. We will publish a response from any of the six businesses named.

Frequently asked questions

Which Brighton businesses were named for underpaying staff?

Six employers with Brighton & Hove trading addresses appear in Round 24: Dosa Kingdom Ltd, Neonify Limited, Saint James Tavern Ltd, Sundari Foods Limited (trading as Vel Brighton), RFG Brighton Limited (trading as Kaspa’s Desserts) and Sumatra Ltd (trading as Longrain Theatre). Between them they owed £9,450.70 to 23 workers.

Has the money been paid back?

Yes. Employers are named after HM Revenue and Customs has investigated and required them to repay their workers, with a penalty on top. Across the whole round, around £4 million went back to more than 27,000 workers and £7 million of penalties was issued.

What is the minimum wage now?

From April 2026 it is £12.71 an hour if you are 21 or over, £10.85 if you are 18 to 20, and £8.00 if you are under 18 or an apprentice aged under 19 or in the first year of an apprenticeship.

What should I do if I think I have been underpaid?

Check your pay and complain at gov.uk/checkyourpay, or contact Acas for free and confidential advice. Complaints can be made anonymously and it is unlawful for an employer to treat you worse for making one.

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