On Tuesday 20 August (today), Labour is holding a summit on the issue of zero-hours contracts with representatives of employers and employees, including workers currently on zero-hours contracts, to discuss the growth in the use of zero-hours contracts and what steps can be taken to tackle their abuse and improve practices.
Whilst prices are rising faster than wages meaning people are nearly £1,500 a year worse off than they were at the general election, ONS data highlighted by the Resolution Foundation shows that those on zero-hours contracts are not only working fewer hours each week but they are also being paid far less for each hour they work. The average hourly wage of those on zero-hours contracts is £9 per hour compared with £15 per hour for employees not on zero-hours contracts.
Earlier this month the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that as many as one million people at work could be employed on zero-hours contracts, four times as many as the most recent Office of National Statistics figure of 250,000.
