Youth wages create poverty, not jobs
By Nathan Brady
and Nikki Ulasowski
Currently, 20% of young full-time workers earn incomes below the poverty line, and most of the rest populate the lowest quarter of income recipients. The government's proposed training schemes, with their accompanying lower wages, will mean many young workers will be unable to survive.
Youth wages have traditionally been determined on the basis that young workers are being supported by their parents and have a lower work value. Consider then, that in 1985 only 20% of 18-20 year olds remained at home, while nearly 18% had family responsibilities.
A recent ACTU survey of young people's attitudes to unemployment and training found 52% thought a cut in minimum wages, as proposed in training schemes, would lead only to them taking other people's jobs, rather than the creation of new jobs.
A spokesperson for the socialist youth organisation Resistance, Bernard Wunsch, said, "The proposed training scheme is not about creating new jobs, but shifting social security payments to further business handouts".
Wunsch pointed out that under the Industrial Relations Act, differentiation of wages on the basis of age is prohibited. The proposed training schemes sidestep this by discriminating on skill levels, experience and competence.