The union’s case is pretty straightforward. Eighteen to 20-year-olds are adults – they pay the same rates for electricity, transport or anything else.
The ACTU catchphrase – “The bills don’t get reduced because you’re younger. The rent doesn’t care about your birthday” – screams legitimacy.
Clearly, cost of living pressures apply equally to young and older adults – certainly for those living out of their parents’ home. An 18-year-old needs 50-plus hours a week to earn what an adult makes in 38 hours.
The SDA reckons the employer groups are mounting a scare campaign about the increase in youth unemployment being a product of improving their pay.
Research commissioned by the Australian Retailers Association found that 77 per cent of retailers would probably cut junior hiring if junior and senior rates were equalised. More than half of retailers surveyed also said such a move would increase costs for their businesses, raising concerns these costs would ultimately be passed on to customers.
Presumably the other half would be borne by the retailer and result in lower profit.
The ARA reckons that it is smaller retailers who will bear the brunt of the increase in costs, although it will also affect larger outfits such as supermarkets and fast food outlets such as McDonald’s and Guzman y Gomez.
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The ARA says “current junior rates reflect lower levels of experience and are an incentive for employers to take a chance on younger, less experienced workers and provide them with the supervision and support to develop important workplace skills. Removing this structure would undoubtedly make it harder for young Australians to enter the workforce, meaning employers are likely to favour more experienced applicants.”
Regardless of whether an inexperienced 18-year-old burger-flipper deserves less than a 20-year-old one, it is hard to ignore that businesses are attracted to younger workers because they are cheaper to pay.
And for young people, the opportunity to get a foothold in the workforce or boost their CVs is valuable.
Thus these young workers are caught in a battle royale between business and unions. An adjudication from Fair Work is expected early next year.
It will be a contest between what’s fair and what’s reasonable.
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