http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... in-low-pay

I agree.

Businesses have simply figured out various instruments - zero hour contracts, making people who were previously employees 'self employed contractors' etc - that make the minimum wage irrelevant.

A better system would be to have some level of banded minimum weekly wage, depending on the hours contracted, and outlaw the practice of splitting a nominally full time post into several part time posts simply to reduce the band it's in. That would satisfy both employers who wanted shift work and employees who want to work part time.

If they scrapped the minimum wage it will not end zero hour contracts. What ever they do there will be some who will try and find a way around it. The moment you start creating bands of a wage rate for working so many hours then companies will try and find a way around it. In the US with the Affordable Care Act only applying to workers working 16 hours or more then what they did was cut peoples hours so that they did not have to comply. This will happen if you do not criminalise such cheats.