Age discrimination and the minimum wage

ON 1 OCTOBER, new EU legislation banned age discrimination in the
workplace for workers under 65, in what some reports are calling: "The
biggest shake-up of workplace laws for 30 years".

Sean Figg

This poses a problem for British employment law. As Olly Scott of the
British Chamber of Commerce points out: "The government’s own minimum
wage law discriminates against people on the grounds of age".

The minimum wage for workers aged 16 and 17 is only £3.30 per hour;
rising to £4.45 for workers aged 18-21 and £5.35 for the over 21s.
Essentially the younger you are the worse your pay can legally be.

The government tries to justify these supposed "development bands" on
the grounds that they ‘protect’ young workers from being laid-off.

But if the government was really concerned about ‘protecting’ young
workers, why don’t they introduce legislation making it harder for
employers to lay workers off whatever their age? Then all workers could
receive the higher level minimum wage.

Of course the reason the government doesn’t do this is to keep the
profits of the Labour Party’s big-business friends healthy.

The government also argues that the paltry level of the minimum wage
for young workers encourages them to stay on in education! But the
government’s own record of ending grants and bringing in tuition fees
shows the concern they have for young people in education.

At the same time as forcing students to take a job while studying,
they institutionalise poverty pay!

So the current minimum wage levels for the under-21s could be open to
a legal challenge. But, with the huge vested business interests involved
in keeping under-21s’ wages down, whoever mounts a challenge will have
quite a job on their hands.

A ruling against this discrimination, bringing the pay for under-21s
in line with that of older workers, would be a step forward.

However, to campaign for a living wage for all workers, an end to all
forms of workplace discrimination and to ensure that any legislative
changes are enforced requires workers to be organised in trade unions,
otherwise legislation can turn out to be just another unread bit of
paper.