Tory MP Ed Vaizey calls for minimum wage for the self-employed

Ed Vaziey, former Minister of State for Culture, Communications, and Creative Industries and MP for Wantage, has called for self-employed workers in the “gig economy” to be paid the legal minimum wage.

Business models relying on self-employed workers have recently been under scrutiny after an employment tribunal declared that Uber’s taxi drivers should be entitled to basic working rights.

If the proposal was made mandatory, Uber and businesses such as Deliveroo and Hermes would be forced to change their business models.

According to The Guardian, Vaizey spoke at an event in London on Tuesday about the impact of digital technology on the labour market and urged the Government to produce a “definition of a new kind of worker in the gig economy” as a “halfway house” between an employee and self-employed contractor.