Raising the bar: strengthening living standards by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts

Publication type

Report

Authors

Publication date

August 14, 2026

Summary:

Exploitative zero-hours contracts provide employers with one-sided flexibility while offering workers no guaranteed income from one week to the next.

However, a central, unresolved question for the new administration to navigate is how widely the right to guaranteed hours should apply – specifically, where ministers should set the ‘low-hours threshold’. That threshold will determine which workers are covered by the new right: anyone with contracted hours that exceed the threshold will be excluded, even if they consistently work beyond their contracted hours.

Our recommendation is that ministers should raise their ambitions by setting a threshold of 30 hours. Anything lower would exclude workers who suffer most from income insecurity, undermining the policy’s central aim to improve living standards for people working on contracts with unpredictable hours. This briefing sets out evidence around a 30-hour threshold.

Subjects

Link

https://www.ippr.org/articles/raising-the-bar

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