Should Jobs Costs Count Towards a Living Wage

These questions were discussed in depth during our free Living Wage Info Session on 26 September. In case you’re interested and would like to join the conversation, please register for our next session here.

Paulien: Should employees pay for their phone, laptop, or chair to sit on when they do their work?
Dani: Well, the reality is that employees usually have access to a chair, a desk, a truck, or a computer when they’re in the office or on-site. But when they work from home, they often end up using their own laptop, phone, desk, and chair. Formally, the employer should provide the tools needed to do the job, regardless of where the work takes place.

Paulien: Should self-employed workers pay for their phone, laptop, or bike?
Dani: In practice, self-employed workers generally buy their own tools, whether that’s a laptop, a bike, or a phone. And often, they invest in high-quality equipment because it helps them offer a better service and stand out from the competition. The thing is that they should earn enough to cover those costs on top of what they earn for themselves.
Martijn: Yes, we also have to look at the bigger picture. These investments can quickly become a form of lock-in, especially in jobs with high upfront costs, like taxi driving.
Iftikhar: In some cases, platforms offer lease-to-own options or loans to get started, but that comes with a risk. The worker takes on the debt, while the platform still controls demand, pricing, and working conditions. So even though they’re technically self-employed, they may have very little autonomy in practice. Basically, they pay to work.
Dani: That’s why the Living Tariff includes these job-related costs: it helps show what a fair rate should be—not just to cover basic living needs, but also to account for the real costs and risks of working independently.

Paulien: Should an employee get paid a Minimum Wage or ideally at least a Living Wage?
Dani: Sure, at the very least, an employee should earn the Minimum Wage. But ideally, they should earn a Living Wage, because that’s the only way to ensure their income actually covers the cost of a decent life. The Minimum Wage is often too low, and it doesn’t always keep up with inflation or real living costs. Where possible, a Collective Agreement is better.

Paulien: Is a Living Wage enough for the self-employed?
Dani: No, not really. A Living Wage is designed for employees, as it covers basic living costs assuming that the employer provides social security and a stable workload. But self-employed workers face extra costs and risks: they must cover both sides of social security, deal with unpaid admin time, and often face unstable income. On top of that, they have to buy their own equipment. That’s why we developed the Living Tariff. The Living Tariff builds on the Living Wage but adds everything a self-employed person needs to truly earn a decent income.

Paulien: If an employer pays job-related costs for employees, should the self-employed also earn an income that allows them to cover those same costs? And if yes, what should happen when a worker has several clients or works across multiple platforms?
Dani: Absolutely. A self-employed worker should earn enough to cover all the costs needed to do their job properly, whether that’s a phone, a laptop, a workspace, or a vehicle. That means their tariff or rate needs to be high enough to include social security plus those job-related costs. When someone works for several clients or platforms, the logic stays the same. Each job, task, or hour of work should be priced in a way that contributes fairly to covering those costs. Otherwise, the worker ends up underpaid and subsidising the work out of their own pocket.

Paulien: And if a person works remotely—does the employer have to pay for the laptop, desk, room, heater, etc.?
Dani: Formally, yes, the employer is responsible for providing the tools needed to do the job. But in practice, we increasingly see employees working from home without any reimbursement for things like their phone, laptop, electricity, or office furniture.
Martijn: And this raises an important point: the line between being employed and self-employed is starting to blur, especially for remote workers. If employees are expected to take on more of the costs and responsibilities typically covered by an employer, we need to ask: are they still being treated like employees? That’s exactly why conversations around job-related costs—and tools like the Living Tariff—are becoming more relevant, beyond the gig economy, for all self-employed workers and probably many remote employees.

Paulien: What are the rules for employed people who work remotely?
Iftikhar: Legislation increasingly requires employers to either provide this work-related equipment and services or compensate for them. Colombia, for example, requires a connectivity allowance to be paid to lower-wage workers when they are working from home. Thanks to COVID-19 and an increase in the number of remote employees, a growing number of jurisdictions now require employers to reimburse work-related costs for their remote employees. These costs typically cover equipment and tools, as well as utilities (including electricity and internet). The Remote Work or Telework legislation in Spain and Latin American countries—such as Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru—addresses these issues. Portuguese labour law also requires employers to fully compensate for additional costs arising from telework, including energy and internet, and to provide/maintain the needed equipment. Even the US Fair Labor Standards Act requires that where unreimbursed work expenses (e.g., required phone/internet) would push pay below minimum wage or cut into overtime, the employer must reimburse.

However, the above provisions or reforms apply only to employees. Independent contractors and self-employed workers are still not covered.

Paulien: What is common in the platform world?
Martijn: In the gig economy, the self-employed model is dominant, which means workers are usually responsible for providing their own equipment. In some cases—such as delivery work—certain items may be supplied, or workers may receive discounts on equipment branded with the platform’s logo. However, workers need to know these costs and factor them into their rates. The problem is that, in many cases, workers have little or no control over the rates, which are set by the platform. Even the platform often has limited influence on pricing, as it typically operates in many highly-competitive consumer-driven markets.