Wage rates ‘grossly unfair’ for young workers, commission hears

Instances of young workers being paid less than the standard minimum wage because they are assumed to have fewer financial responsibilities at home and to be less productive in the workplace are a throwback to the sort of discrimination women were made to endure in the 1970s, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said.

In a submission to the Low Pay Commission, which has been running a consultation on the retention, removal and adjustment of subminimum youth rates of the national minimum wage, the union umbrella group described the system as “manifestly unfair and discriminatory”.

The minimum wage of €11.30 is the lowest amount employers can pay to workers aged 20 or over. Since a previous review of the system was finalised in 2018, however, the figures for those aged 17, 18 and 19 are set at 70, 80 and 90 per cent respectively of the full rate.

The means a 19-year-old worker must receive at least €10.17 and a 17-year-old just €7.91. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures suggest that of some 91,000 young workers subject to the regulations, one in six (about 16,400) are paid the lower rate for their work.

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This, Ictu said, is evidence of the system giving “unscrupulous employers and an advantage” over good ones.

In a significant number of cases, it argued, young people who are treated as adults by society in every other way, and who are often performing precisely the same work as older colleagues, are being discriminated against when it comes to their earnings.

“The arguments most often made by proponents of subminimum youth rates is that young people are not generally responsible for the bills to run a home,” the submission states. “That they have fewer qualifications and are less productive. That they are not as experienced as older workers and they need more supervision. That paying them the full rate of the minimum wage is unaffordable for small businesses and will result in young workers’ hours being cut or cost them their jobs.”

It says the available evidence does not back up the claims and that “these are the same arguments that were made in the 1970s in opposition to equal pay legislation”.

“Today we would baulk at the idea of a business being permitted to have one rate of pay for men and another lower rate of pay for women who work side by side doing the same job. Yet we continue to condone this raw deal for our young people,” it said.

The subminimum youth rates are, it concludes “outdated, out of line with EU norms and grossly unfair to young workers and good employers”. It also argued that they would be out of step with the provisions of a recent EU directive on adequate minimum wages, which is due to be implemented in Ireland by November of next year.

The deadline set for submission as part of the consultation process is today. It is understood that employer and youth groups are also among the parties to have been invited to express views on the issue.

Asked about the issue by Paul Murphy TD last month, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Neale Richmond said the Government was “fully committed to ensuring that work pays for every worker” and is in the process of moving towards the establishment of a living wage.

He said he did not want to pre-empt any future Government decision but suggested it had previously acted upon the guidance of the Low Pay Commission. Last week the commission recommended a 12 per cent rise to the minimum wage, taking the full rate to €12.70 from January 1st if implemented.

Last month Ireland was cited by the European Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body to the Parliament and Commission that includes representatives of unions, employers and other civil society organisations, as one of the few EU countries to maintain a system of lower minimum payments for younger workers.

Youth Work Ireland’s Michael McLoughlin said the lower rates were “wholly unacceptable” as “discrimination is based on outmoded and outdated Victorian ideas [and] predicated on the notion that young people have less responsibilities than others. Such an assumption intrudes into young people’s personal lives, which are not a matter for Government or employers”.