Piggy bank IOU savings pay money poverty TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons), photo TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons)

Piggy bank IOU savings pay money poverty TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons), photo TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons)   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Matt Whale, young worker

Young workers once again find themselves being ripped off, as a report indicates that companies spend 20 times more on older workers’ pensions than younger workers’.

Big business wants to drive a wedge between younger and older workers to maximise profits.

They start with attacks on the young: lower wages, less opportunities – and increasing job insecurity, with casualised work and zero-hour contracts becoming the norm. Now they’ve chucked in a huge deficit in funding for pensions – if young workers can ever afford to retire.

But according to the ‘experts’ at the Intergenerational Foundation, which produced the report, the answer is to also attack the gains made by older workers! Capitalist politicians have made the same arguments. This is what big business has wanted all along.

They argue that businesses can no longer afford the pensions older workers fought for, and this is why there’s underinvestment in young workers’ pensions. Of course the only reason this is ‘unaffordable’ is it will eat into profits for the bosses and major shareholders.

Workers do need to organise to address the imbalance between younger and older workers. But this must be on the basis of bringing younger workers up to the level of older workers – and going further for both, to demand living pensions for all. It is vital we avoid a ‘race to the bottom’, with an artificial divide between generations used as an excuse to cut hard-earned pension rights.

The bosses have billions stashed idly in their vaults – much of it in off-shore bank accounts. We say take it off them. For full job security for all workers, a £10 an hour minimum wage with no exceptions, and a living pension for all upon retirement.