zero-normhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zero-norm_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezero norm, n.
Revised 2018

zero normnoun

Economics.
  1. 1966–
    (In a period of pay restraint) the principle that the percentage increase in wages should be zero in all but exceptional circumstances; = nil norm n.
    1. 1966
      There is no bogy-man so dismal to those who run Britain's economy as the dreaded Zero Norm, the spectre who is supposed to rule over pay negotiations in the six-month period of ‘severe restraint’ that replaces the total pay freeze from New Year's Day.
      Economist 17 December 1214/1
    2. 1976
      A zero norm which equalizes everybody is easier to endure.
      F. Zweig, New Acquisitive Society ii. i. 80
    3. 2000
      After devaluation, attempts to introduce a zero norm..all led to the strikes and wages explosion.
      M. Rhodes in M. Ferrera & M. Rhodes, Recasting European Welfare States 167

Originally published as part of the entry for zero, n. & adj.

zero, n. & adj. was revised in June 2018.