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The Low Pay Unit regularly produces reports and responses on a range of employment-related issues. You can read these on-line or download the documents (but you must have Adode Acrobat Reader). You may use these documents free of charge for non-commercial purposes as long as you quote the source.

Justice not Charity

Every two years the Low Pay Commission seeks views to inform its recommendation to the government on the level of the national minimum wage. This time the Low Pay Unit collaborated with Unison to make its response.

Rather than revisiting points which have been well documented in previous submissions, this submission to the Commission considers the hidden costs of low pay and poor conditions, the failure of market forces at the bottom end of the market, and the cost of an inadequate minimum wage to society and the exchequer.

Employment Status

The DTI recently sought views on employment status in relation to statutory employment rights. At present a distinction is drawn between "employees" and "workers", the latter in some cases having a lower level of rights.

The Low Pay Unit believes that the fairest and most effective solution would be to extend all statutory employment rights to “workers”, excluding only those who are genuinely self-employed (working in business on their own account). This would ensure overall consistency and would make the system of statutory protection simpler for everyone to understand.