Third of HMRC workers paid national minimum wage

Published by Amy on June 3, 2024June 3, 2024

Sara White, Accountancy Daily | 7th May 2024

Almost a third of HMRC staff are so poorly paid they were given an unscheduled salary increase in April to ensure that the government department was compliant with the minimum wage

Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC has told MPs on the Treasury Committee that a third of civil servants at the tax office will be given an ‘uplift’ in pay to bring them above the National Living Wage threshold of £11.44 per hour, which came into force on 1 April.

HMRC is the government department responsible for enforcing minimum wage requirements.

Last week, under questioning from MP Therese Coffey, who had suggested that civil servants were well paid, Harra responded: ‘I am this month having to give nearly a third of my staff, including all the helpline advisers and the staff who work on the post teams, a rise so that they can stay with the national living wage.

‘That is the rate of pay I am giving those colleagues, which is not a position that I want to be in, but just in case people were left with the false impression that we pay people very high salaries, that is not the case.’

The government’s National Living Wage is set almost 5% below what the Living Wage Foundation calculates someone would need to earn to meet the basic necessities of daily living.

In light of this, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Fran Heathcote said: ‘It is simply scandalous that the workers who ensure we have the finances to run public services in this country are being paid such a meagre wage, and the words of Jim Harra directly challenge the Tory view that civil servants are well paid.

‘The fact that HMRC is being legally forced into giving almost a third of its workforce an uplift demonstrates why it is so important for PCS members to back our pay demands and vote yes for strike action in the national ballot to send a clear message that this is unacceptable.’

HMRC union members are currently voting on whether to take strike action over pay and conditions. The last time a vote was held in November 2022, there was unanimous support for strikes, one of which was held on the day of the Budget that month.