Employers’ role in the low-pay/no-pay cycle

This study examines the pressures which lead to employers offering low-paid, insecure jobs and also considers the scope for change. Employers determine terms and conditions and how work is organised, including pay, the balance between temporary and permanent work, skill requirements and progression structures. In seeking to reduce intermittent poverty, it is, therefore, important to consider how employers' practices might be changed in order to reduce the extent of insecure, low-paid work. The study: • examines the pressures on employers which lead to insecure low-paid work; • identifi es how employer ethos affects response to these pressures; • discusses how purchasers affect their suppliers' employment practices; • identifi es ways in which the state, as employer, purchaser and legislator, as well as trade unions and consumers, might reduce the extent of low-paid, insecure employment.