The Government is being urged to extend minimum wage legislation to protect the UK's 4.8million self-employed workforce.

A new report by the Resolution Foundation called 'The Minimum Required' shows that that while around in one in five employees are low-paid (earning less than two-thirds of typical weekly earnings), last year around half of the full-time self-employed workforce (49 per cent) fell below this threshold, earning less than £310 a week.

The Foundation says that extending minimum wage protection to some of the self-employed should be part of a wider package of reforms to ensure that all workers have similar rights and responsibilities, whatever their employment status.

Policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation Conor D'Arcy said: "The UK's labour market has been very successful at creating jobs in recent years.

"However, far too many of those jobs offer very low pay and precious little security.

"This is especially true of the growing army of the self-employed.

"While many 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.

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

"But moving to narrow rights, benefits and tax gaps between the self-employed and employees would at last create a level playing field in the labour market.

"This would help to ensure that people's employment status was based on the job that they do, rather than on a firm's willingness to pay the minimum wage or the wish to avoid paying a fair share of tax."

The Resolution Foundation report 'The Minimum Required' forms part of the Taylor Review which reviews workers' rights in today's economy.

What do you think? Email: mark@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk 

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Readers' view:

Mike Lawrence: The SATS results were released today as well. "Today's Sats results reveal that 61 per cent of children have reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics."

That means 39 per cent of those going through the education system failed in the very subjects that are almost mandatory for employment. Reading, Writing and Mathematics. A variation in pay is therefore accepted. Employers are being put in a very difficult position.