The rise of insecure work has had real consequences for both personal budgets and the national exchequer. The lower earnings and lower tax paid by the self-employed and those on zero hours contracts means the rise in insecure work has come with a £5bn price tag for the exchequer. But the cost of insecure work…
The Taylor review is finally here, along with a pretty large sense of anti-climax. This isn’t the game changer those in insecure work were looking for. In assessing what it means, we’ve tried to keep in mind the people who told us about their experience of insecure work, of shifts being cancelled at the drop…
There’s been a flurry of pre-briefing over the weekend on the Taylor report. We’ve rounded up what we know so far, and added our thoughts on what that would mean for the 3.2 million people in insecure work. Of course we’ll have to wait till the actual report is published tomorrow to give our final…
The long-awaited Taylor Review into “modern employment” practices is just days away from publication. It’s been talked up a great deal by ministers and cited numerous times by the Prime Minister, so it’s fair to say that expectations are high. Matthew deserves credit for his willingness to engage throughout the review. He has heard from…
Today’s labour market figures presented yet another iteration of the puzzle of the UK labour market in recent years: why are higher employment rates not pushing up wages? Traditional labour market theory tells us that as unemployment falls, workers feel more secure in their jobs and more able to push for wage increases, employers need…
What’s at stake for working people in this election? Economic issues increasingly risk being the dog that didn’t bark in this election. The 2015 campaign saw a fierce debate about the figures, whether on the scale of the cost-of-living crisis or the size of the deficit, at the centre of parties’ messages. But in 2017,…
New research we’ve published today, commissioned from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, shows that insecure work isn’t inevitable. The rise and rise of insecure work in the UK is sometimes treated as a natural consequence of technological and social change. The development of online platforms has made it easier for employers to parcel…
Increases in taxation of self-employment may raise more money for the exchequer but will do little to clamp down on bad employers who force staff into bogus self-employment to lower their tax bill Today’s standout Budget measure was the increase in the tax paid by the self-employed, with the rate of the Class 4 National…
So far this week we’ve outlined the main challenges facing the Chancellor as he prepares his budget, and looked at the sharp rise in insecurity at work, and the hole it’s punching in the public finances. Today’s post looks at the longer term challenge of producing more good jobs and an economy that works for…
Yesterday’s Budget blog focused on challenges facing the Chancellor as he prepares for the last Spring Budget. New TUC research out today shows why tackling the rise of insecure work should be high on the Chancellor’s agenda, revealing the £4bn a year cost of the rise in low-paid self employment and zero hours contracts. The…