Request to EHRC Commissioner re: discrimination against Young People over min. wage
It is especially hard for young people on a minimum wage to make ends meet with the spiraling housing, fuel and living costs; so it seems extremely unfair that young people aged 18-24 are not able to obtain equal rights to the minimum wage currently and when the new level of £7.20 comes into effect in April 2016.
Equality is an issue close to my heart and I am especially keen that young people should not be discriminated against, thus I have sought out Sarah Veale, Head, Equality and Employment Rights Department to ask her if she will get on the case on their behalf on the basis that any advancement made (the aim being to equalise the situation) will have a very positive impact on young people who are at the lowest end of the pay scale.
Ms Veale said to me that …..”The EHRC did not exist at the time when the age discrimination regulations were introduced in the UK. The transposition of the EU Directive on age was handled by the former Department of Trade and Industry, who decided to avail themselves of the opportunity to use the objective justification defence available in the EU Directive and retain the pre-existing youth differential in the NMW regulations, for which they also had responsibility. As far as I am aware the issue has not been looked at by the EHRC. However, in my role as a Commissioner I will see whether there is any appetite for having a look at this. It is the Department for Business that has the responsibility for the NMW by the way, not the DWP. They also have responsibility for the Age regulations.”
Not only are young people discriminated in terms of minimum wage, they are also severely discriminated against in terms of access to state benefits and heavily exploited as interns and free labour. I have heard anecdotally of a graduate doing their 2nd or even 3rd internship at the BBC.
Youth unemployment is also rife, as social geographer Danny Dorling points out.
Mass Higher Education has also been used as a means of masking unemployment figures. The focus is on ‘throughput’ with nothing like the per capita investment in resourcing courses and student maintenance since the existing parliamentarians were at uni.
It has been widely noted that we have more and more centenarians, but surely greater investment in opportunities for younger people are essential to prevent a lack of care provision for older people in future years? More at traineeships