UK-based independent think tank Resolution Foundation has suggested that some self-employed workers should be entitled to the national minimum wage in a new publication entitled, ‘The minimum required?’.

The Resolution Foundation has submitted its publication to the Taylor Review on modern employment practices.

“The minimum wage revolutionised the lower end of the UK’s labour market, protecting employees from exploitation,” Conor D’Arcy, Policy Analyst, Resolution Foundation said. “But the self-employed – now one in seven of the workforce – are not entitled to the minimum wage. With growing concerns over their earnings and conditions, particularly in the so-called gig economy, extending the minimum wage to some of this group has been discussed.”

D’Arcy added that applying a blanket minimum wage guarantee to the self-employed would not be practical.

“While a minimum wage would not be appropriate for the majority of the self-employed, for those who take work from firms or platforms and – crucially – don’t have control over the price they charge, moves to reduce exploitatively low pay for this group would be both meaningful and welcome,” D’Arcy said.

The publication found that one in five employees were classed as low-paid, in other words earning less than two-thirds of the typical weekly wage of about £500. But for those classified as self-employed, half were earning less than £310 a week.

"The government can start by extending minimum wage protections to those self-employed people whose prices are set by a firm,” D’Arcy said. "This would mean that self-employed people in the gig economy would be given protection against extreme low pay for the first time ever.”

“Existing legislation on ‘piece work’ done by employees provides a useful template, in which firms offering work complete a test to ensure that a person working at an average pace could be expected to earn at least the minimum wage while carrying out the task,” D’Arcy said. “This measure alone will not assuage fears about poor quality self-employment; greater enforcement of existing employment law to prevent workers from being wrongly classified as self-employed is vital, as well as moves to close the gap in the tax and benefit treatment of self-employed and employee.”