Fund our future: take the wealth off the super-rich

Thomas Butler, Liverpool North Socialist Party

2026 started with high youth unemployment and very little has changed in the first six months. The percentage of young people not in education, training or employment hovers at around 16% – that’s nearly one in six 18-24 year olds without a job or on a course!

This does not even begin to tell the full story. 16% doesn’t include the thousands of young people in unfair and inadequate working conditions. Zero-hour contract use has been rising with young people, despite Labour being elected promising to abolish them. Many young workers find themselves in such precarious conditions that they are not able to plan their lives securely, unsure how much they will get paid every month, or if they will have a job at all.

To fight the youth unemployment plague, we need a trade union-led fightback. To fight to share out the work and provide jobs for all. Not just new jobs but also fighting for dignified working conditions. A campaign which demands immediately increasing the minimum wage to £15-an hour for all, as a step towards a real living wage. Young people are saddled with a lower minimum wage, going to as low as £8-an-hour for under-18s. No one should be paid less for the exact same work purely based on their age! Sharing out the work would mean we could have a maximum 35-hour working week with no loss in pay for anyone.

Will an incoming Andy Burnham-led government commit to Labour’s pledge to abolish zero-hour contracts? Will it cast away age discrimination in the minimum wage? Ultimately, what measures will it put forward to tackle the ever-pressing issue of youth unemployment? Will it have a plan to create jobs by investing in public services and infrastructure, with a mass council house building programme, fix the crumbling infrastructure and invest in developing science and technology? The wealth is there in society for this, but hoarded in the hands of the super-rich.

We can’t have more attacks on young people’s rights and benefits, we need real jobs, proper training and free education. If you want to get involved in fighting for a future, join us today.