Government inspectors fined 117 different employers for failing to abide by the minimum pay laws: from multinational hotel and restaurant chains to small businesses.
Of that sum, 15 of them have their base in the West Midlands, including Birmingham City Football Club.
Top of the list of the local offenders came Globebrow Ltd, the Shropshire-based company that runs Manor Adventure.
The company provides outdoor adventure holidays for schools at sites in England, Scotland, Wales and France.
It had to pay back £33,890 to 111 workers who were on the minimum wage.
“They fined us on a technicality, in relation to us deducting food and meals from our live-in staff,” company director David Constance told Birmingham Eastside.
The inspectors came in and objected, “so we had to revise it.”
But everyone had been paid their arrears, as specified by the government inspectors, he said. “We paid a £11,210 fine,” he added.
Birmingham City Football Club came second on the West Midlands list. They had to pay £5,653 in back pay to 534 minimum-wage staff. They did not repond to a request for more information.
Neither did the Care Bureau, in Warwick, which recruits staff for care homes. They had to pay £3,423 to 343 minimum-wage staff, according to figures released by the government.
Tenth of the West Midlands list was Stoke City Football Club.
Our main article: Hotel, restaurant chains top low pay “list of shame”
See also: Birmingham City FC fined for underplaying employees
