To think that the under 18s minimum wage is exploitative

[DaddyDavid]

My son who is 16 has been offered a job at a supermarket. The pay is £3.72 an hour. I can't und why the minimum wage is lower for under-18s it seems like age discrimination. This has annoyed me so much, as I fualt it would be good for ds1 to get a Saturday job but know I think it would be better if he worked about the house and I pay him more aibu

15yo DS makes almost £7/hour delivering papers. BUT the ref he gets from that or experience for future jobs has poor value.

Most FT Apprenticeships I've looked at would leave DS about £50/week after transport costs.

or start his own business

lol Choc. Seeing how many adults are struggling to do that, will start a business and go under within a year having lost plenty of money, let alone earn any, I'm interested to see how a 16yo is supposed to do it
have you tried to be self employed yourself?

I don't think that is right. I was looking at min wage for under 18 and apprentices the other day and was shocked. While I can see the "who will employ them if they're not dead cheap" argument I can also see the unscrupulous employers ditching people and so on has has been said.

Also dislike the idea that all 16 to 18 yo are hopeless no-marks and obviously no-one will employ them without incentive. Plenty of 16-18 yo are very intelligent, driven, and they have stacks of energy and enthusiasm. Assumption they will be pretty shit is not fair IMO.

Additionally, like others, I started work for £2 something an hour - heading towards £3 I think. But this was 25 years ago! What about inflation? Saying well I started for that so why shouldn't they OK then but when was this?!!!

Having said that adult wages have stagnated as well but not to that extreme I don't think.

I think he should take the job for all the reasons stated on this thread. It will be worth him going to work, especially as he has nothing to pay out for.

That said, it is age discrimination, and it causes problems for people both in this group, and over the age of 18, who lack experience. When a similar sort of pay scale was suggested for disabled people, there was outrage and rightly so.

There is a lot of institutional discrimination against the young in this country, and many employers use apprenticeships to exploit young people as well.

When I was 16, I already had two years work experience- I'd done office work in the holidays, and worked in catering at the weekends. I'd also volunteered at a local animal shelter. I think there are plenty of 18yo or older people who wouldn't have had that kind of work experience- treating all young people the same is not right and I think there are 16yo out there who have a lot to offer an employer, and don't deserve a shit wage.

If it was a lower minimum wage for everyone in their first job or their first year of work, I think that would be fairer.

Which supermarket is it? DS2 is 19 and works for one of the big 4 and is paid over £7 an hour!

Oh yes was going to say though that money is not the only reason for working. Supermarkets often have loads of young people and a fantastic social life outside work. Loads of different people to meet and new friends and probably all fairly local (assuming there). Also he will get the exp which is great.

Maybe take it and look for something better paid which he will be more able to find once he has the exp under his belt?

It is shit money though and I don't like the age discrimination.

Do the work but start an amusing ascerbic video blog about teen exploitation and/or experiences and try to become a famous vlogger?

It might nt seem a lot in comparison to adult NMW but are you and your DS forgetting that he has little to no outgoings so the money will be his own to spend? He has no tax to pay, no gas water electricity, presumably you buy his food, he has a roof over his head, doesn't have a car, doesn't have children

This attitude stinks! You should be paid for the job you are doing, not according to your own circumstances.
Do you think women with wealthy husbands should be paid less at work because they are not so desperate for the money?

Why are people posting about what they earned in their first jobs? It's totally irrelevant unless it was within the past couple of years.

Its definitely too low! Why can't it be something like £4.50 an hour?

I despair of the tiny amounts people are expected to work for while the directors and shareholders at the top of the chain have seen their incomes rise exponentially in the last 20 years or so.

Of course he should take the job. He won't be 16 forever. His wages will go up.
If he is any good he may be able to transfer to another branch if he goes to college.
The experience of working is invaluable.

Re apprentices: they are being taught a skill by their employers that will give them a 'passport' to earn a decent wage for the rest of their lives.

This attitude stinks! You should be paid for the job you are doing, not according to your own circumstances.

they should be paid for the experience and skills they bring to the job, most 16 year olds will have none of those. The reason my dcs get a bit more for their p/t time jobs ie lifeguard (requires qualifications and commitment to ongoing training) and dd has 5 years of experience of the child and his needs already. The both required CRB/DRB for their jobs.

Plenty of 16 - 18 yo have skills! They have all sorts of skills, some of them are going to be more intelligent, quicker on the uptake and with better interpersonal skills than people who are older and / or have been working longer.

Should adults who are entering a new role that they haven't done before - say doing shelf stacking when they have previously worked on checkout - expect to see their wages halved?

I find this writing off of 16-18yo as hopeless and crap just because they are young appalling. I know people who haven't had their first job until they are over 21 - they don't get paid this money. I know of young people who have been volunteering and involved with all sorts of things for years - and yet they are labelled as having "no skills" just because of their age? That's terrible.

Should women who have been out of employment for a few years due to children and then go back into a field they have not been in previously have their minimum wage set at £3.70 or whatever it is an hour?

No of course they shouldn't!

they should be paid for the experience and skills they bring to the job, most 16 year olds will have none of those. The reason my dcs get a bit more for their p/t time jobs ie lifeguard (requires qualifications and commitment to ongoing training) and dd has 5 years of experience of the child and his needs already. The both required CRB/DRB for their jobs.

I was responding to the poster who was suggesting that the 16 year old would have less out goings and living expenses....stacking shelves is stacking shelves. The issue of a 16 year old not having rent and bills to pay is ridiculous. I wasn't talking about necessary experience...the nmw is less for under 18s...experience is irrelevant. They would still be paid less than an adult even I'd they had more experience than the adult. We do not negotiate wages on the basis of our outgoings but on the worth of the job.

Im not writing off 16-18 years olds, mine at the age of 16 had provable skills and they are paid extra for them.
A woman who hasnt worked for years sitll should be more experienced in the world and more mature and should need less supervision and as someone else put it there are limits on what 16 year olds are allowed to do in supermarkets.

A woman who hasnt worked for years sitll should be more experienced in the world and more mature and should need less supervision and as someone else put it there are limits on what 16 year olds are allowed to do in supermarkets.

It is irrelevant what experience they have and what they can or can't do....at least for the employers. They don't pay less because the 16 year olds have less experience, they pay less because legally they can!

We have an 18yo apprentice who earns about £2.75ph. I feel quite embarrassed sometimes, she works so hard, is always looking for stuff to do, so interested in everything we do, and is absolutely shit hot as the job, so thorough. She does exactly the same job as me, but I get triple what she does. I feel bad about it quite often!

DSis is 17 and gets paid £3.70/hour.

She works in a coffee shop and does exactly the same work as three or four other women who work alongside her, yet they get paid double what she does.

It's not fair, and I think NMW should at the very least be lowered to 16- after all you can be legally married, rent your own home and have children from 16, so why shouldn't you be paid a wage that can support that.

I'm looking for an apprentice for the nursery I manage
The wage is under £3 an hour which is shockingly low
But it seems a fortune compared to my first wage in childcare which was 0 as I ran a playgroup for years voluntarily
I suppose we all have to start somewhere

I interview staff for jobs. If I had two 18 year olds and one said they'd taken on a minimum wage part time job to gain experience and the other said they hadn't because working for that pay was beneath them, I know who would be in the stronger position.

In work, we pretty much all started out on low pay. Entrepreneurs can work for nothing or buttons initially to get a certain experience as they see the big picture in the long run. Children doing Duke of Edinburgh awards do their voluntary work for free.

There will be machinery that it is illegal for 16 year olds to operate (meat slicer at a deli, fork lift truck, a car). In a shop they cannot sell certain products without authorisation or supervision like an 18 year old can (e.g. an underage shop assistant at the supermarket must get an adults consent to put alcohol through the till).

Women who have taken time off to raise a family won't be age restricted, they will have transferable life skills such as budgeting, meal planning, childcare, the list goes on.

I think he should take the job.

I think the view is that under 18s don't have living expenses.

I worked in a nursing home for £1.20 per hour before the min wage came in. Admittedly that was 25 years ago but I doubt today's equivalent is more than your son is getting

I didn't realise it was so low. But on the other hand most sixteen year olds are just working for pocket money. And I agree if the wages were higher some might be tempted to leave education. What about doing dog walking or similar.

I think you should be encouraging him to take the job. It's his first step to building a CV, getting used to the employment arena and building his skills.
There are as others said things in employment that are age restricted.

'But it seems a fortune compared to my first wage in childcare which was 0 as I ran a playgroup for years voluntarily'

How did you live for all those years? Buy food and clothing, pay for electricity and gas and a roof over your head?

Ds was unemployed despite completing an apprenticeship
I managed to get him a job through a friend working for minimum wage in a Teddy bear factory
He has since landed his dream job and earns more money than he can spend
His boss said it was the fact that ds had worked for minimum wage at the teddy bear factory that swung it for him
It marked him out as a grafter
Any job looks better than no kpb on a cv