Very well done here, vry well done that men

We do think this is just the most lovely logic:

Andy Burnham is being urged to protect 4 million gig economy workers by prosecuting companies that use widespread “bogus” self-employment practices to deny people their rights.

As the prime minister fleshes out his agenda, the Fabian Society and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have warned that millions of workers are missing out on key statutory rights including parental leave, redundancy pay and protection against unfair dismissal.

Publishing a joint report calling on Burnham to take action, the Labour-linked thinktank and the anti-poverty charity said changes were essential to make work pay amid the cost of living crisis.

The cost of employing you - what you receive for working - is your compensation. Your wages are some subset of that, after statutory rights, holiday pay, protections against dismissal, employer paid taxes on wages and so on. The issue that matters most immediately for the cost of living is your pay, your wages, not your compensation. As we’ve already seen with the employer NI rises, increases in compensation can and will lead to reductions in employment which leaves some with no wages at all to deal with the CoL.

So, the logic here is that in order to cope with the rising cost of living more of your compensation should come in those statutory rights and less in the wages you can use to deal with the cost of living. Or, perhaps, no wages at all.

We’d just like to say very well done to whoever came up with that argument. Vry well done that man.

Tim Worstall