..to think that £6.15 an hour...

[BertrandRussell]

.....really is shit wages?

No it is below the national living wage. I think its at least £7-8 someyhing per hour now. Exceptions are young people and people in apprenticeships.

Something*

I thought minimum wage was £10.80

😳

Rates

I think companies who pay this kind of money just based on the age of the person doing the job are morally bankrupt. I don't care whether someone is 16 or 60, if they are doing the same job to the same standard then they should be paid the same.

That wage is utterly crap

Many 18-20 year olds live at home and the sum mentioned will not have to cover any living expenses at at all so will be pocket money to spend. Older people earning more will pay tax, NI and then all their bills and living expenses before they get to spend the disposable which may well be less than £6.15.

More valuable than the money to the teenager will be the experience of working, dealing with the public, learning self discipline, realising that life is sometimes demanding, having to think of others instead of just oneself and, hopefully, the value of saving and of knowing the value of things by having to buy them rather than having them bought by others. It will bring maturity and banish ‘snowflakery’.

An added bonus will be that, if the young worker, then goes on to university, they will appreciate the value of their loan and that they should not waste their time but get the best degree they can. They will also understand the efforts it will take to pay the money back.

Great dividends are paid later on in life when essential lessons are taken on board earlier rather than learnt the hard way later.

Sorry, redundant comma after ‘worker’.

I can see a bit of a case for 16-18 years old but not 18-24 year old. I mean I thought you became an adult at 18 not 25.

On that basis, why pay anything at all?!

cf unpaid ‘internships ‘

I think adult min wage should be paid for 18yo up.

Tax credits stop as soon as a child leaves education and if they are still living at home a parent is then stuck supporting them without help unless they are earning enough to pay their way. On the lower wages they are barely able to pay their stupidly high car insurances and other personal basics.

Yes, this has been my situation as a single parent for a few years with my teens. No choice but for them to have cars as transport is dire where we are.

I also think they’d be used less for cheap labour which seemed to be the case for a couple of jobs my teens have had.

Fortunately they are now in jobs with better pay for their ages and can pay their way easier but it’s been tough going.

The biggest pisstake I’m seeing at the moment is adverts for Administration Apprentices. As if minimum wage wasn’t low enough. No one needs qualifications to do admin.

The NMW must be replaced by the living wage.It is a disgrace.Just wondering whether all the postings on here who think its okay would say the same for a man?

I was on £2.50 an hour, 40 hours a week back when I started work at 17.

Just to point out a couple of things wrt student - the maintenance loan doesn't always cover the rent, which can be about £5/600 pcm in some places. Accommodation isn't owned by the university so private landlords are charging big deposits and offering nearly full year contacts, not just term time ones. So students are often paying rent for the whole year rather than going home and being bill free.
Some courses are virtually full time and require a level of work which doesn't leave much time it flexibility for getting a job.

An 18 yr old shouldn’t be paid the same as a more experienced older employee no matter what the job. If they did, they simply wouldn’t get hired. I know it’s age discrimination but it would still happen.

I'm working with a 17 year old who also gets min wage, £4.35, who is leaving to work in sainsburys for £9.20 an hour. The disparagy makes no sense. The sainsburys job will be easier!!!

If the 18 year old is doing the exact same job though, the experience level of the two employees isn't relevant. Fair enough to pay a slightly lower wage while a person is training, because they are not actually very valuable to the business but this ought to be for a very limited time and not age related.
Employers are taking the piss. If they can't afford to hire and pay all staff properly, they shouldn't be in business.

Also there are bloody useless people of all ages.

Everyone wants wages to go up until they realise prices will go up...
We had raise prices every year so the staff had a living wage. Small businesses, just few employees, small margins. Every year electricity and everything else including stock went up too.
The way people can flip over 40p increase on a burger is unbelievable.

What I did find with working alongside the 16-18 age group was that they, generally speaking, needed more hand-holding than older employees

I used to earn $3.40/hr.

I’m not sure why people are posting what they used to earn- particularly without including the date!