Is it time for the self-employed to be paid the minimum wage?

Should some self-employed people be entitled to the national minimum wage?

That’s the question raised by the Resolution Foundation this month, which says that around half of the 4.8m people currently classed as self-employed earn under £310 a week.

As many of them aren’t able to set their own wages (one of the traditional benefits of being self-employed), the think tank said they should be treated as workers instead – with all the wage protection that entails.

The idea was endorsed by Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the Low Pay Commission and Confederation of British Industry.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Turner said some businesses in today’s ‘gig economy’ are using the self-employed status of their workforce to avoiding paying a minimum wage or employee contributions.

He believes the scale of the issue is “probably sufficient that we should tighten up on that” – meaning, in cases where the self-employed are essentially just employed, the national minimum wage would be enforced.

Resolution Foundation policy analyst Conor D’Arcy said: “While many [self-employed people] are higher earners who benefit from significant flexibility, around half fall below the low pay earnings threshold of just £310 a week.

“The government can start by extending minimum wage protections to those self-employed people whose prices are set by a firm.”

He added: “This would mean that self-employed people in the gig economy would be given protection against extreme low pay for the first time ever.”

What do you think? Is it fair for businesses to class people as self-employed when they have no control over the prices they charge – or should the minimum wage be enforced?