Let me first direct your attention to this petition on direct.gov.uk. It is a petition, admittedly somewhat ambiguously worded, asking that minimum wage be raised to keep up with inflation, last estimated to be at 3.6% according to the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, and for the minimum wage for under 21s to be raised, instead of frozen.
I've actually had a tough time finding correct data on this. At HMRC it only has the figures for last October, in which minimum wage was raised below the rate of inflation (which was about 5% at the time if memory serves), and at direct.gov.uk it also quotes the raise from last October. That is:
- £6.08 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over
- £4.98 - the 18-20 rate
- £3.68 - the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18
The petition, and the article in Liberal Conspiracy are both commendable, and I urge anyone reading this to sign the petition and share it. Even though the language is hit-or-miss, sometimes that is just what direct democracy in action looks like. Get over it.
In case, however, you are not convinced that young people and the low waged more generally ought not to experience a real decline in living standards over the next year, I have below a couple of arguments which I hope will persuade you.
The first is that 18 year olds plus are legal adults. They have almost all the legal right that 21 year olds have, and most of the few exceptions are unimportant. However, when it comes the the government sticking up for them and making empolyers pay them a fair wage, under 21s are sadly left out. My parents were starting a family when they were 20, some people's parents start even younger. There is nothing wrong with this: people can start families if they want to. And yet wage discrimination means that under 21s have to work 20% longer to make the same amount of money. This is about economic independence, which all adults deserve, even young adults.
Many young people have disabled parents they are caring for, or are saving up to invest in their futures by getting an education, finding their own home, finding transport independence or even starting their own business. Unless they are paid a fair wage they will not be able to do any of these things. Paying young adults less just means they end up more likely to end up on government benefits when things are tough. That's not necessary. Young adults want to work, but work needs to pay.
There are more dimensions to this as well. We don't know what people's home lives are, the point in things like the minimum wage is that it allows people to make their own way even if things are difficult. By no means does everybody have a comfortable relationship with their parents. While parents are often some of the most loving people out there, it is also those closest to us that have the greatest power to make our lives misery. Young adults need financial independence to provide a cushion between them and the vagaries of family fate. Incidentally this also connects to why losing EMA was such a problem, and whay making financial support for university students contingent on parental circumstances is a mistake. Once people get to 18, as far as the state ought to be concerned the umbilicle cord is cut. The state has no place telling 18 year olds that they are still infants then it comes to policy.
16 and 17 year olds live in an odd, half-adult state. It is one of the irregularities of ours and others' societies that these transitionary periods exist, and they are hard to navigate for policymakers and young people alike. Some inconsistencies are clearly ridiculous. It is legal to have sex and join the army, but not to drink, watch adult rated films, or to vote. There clearly needs to be a debate about the status of 16 and 17 year olds, and it is one they should be included in. However, the important factor here is the fact that at the age of 16 one is no longer in compulsory education. If you are not going to continue being educated, pretty much the only thing to do is to work. A 16 year old can do a full days work and deserves full pay for it.
Now there is an obvious counterargument to all this, but it is one which is so bad I can scarcely it is ever stated. The argument goes that it helps young people get employment, making them a preferable hire over more experienced potential employees. The argument goes that nobody would hire a young adult for the same wage as another adult, because they don't have enough experience.
The facts don't support this position at all. Actually, young people are finding it harder than ever to find work, with youth unemployment now at a million. Raising NMW for young people won't decrease young people's employment: it will actually increase it. There are sound economic reasons for this. When we are choosing between work and leisure, we consider on the one hand how enjoyable the work is (not at all) and how much it pays (very little), and on the other hand what else we could be doing with our time. Which is playing Xbox, and I don't know if you've noticed but there have been some kick-ass titles released over the last year or so. Note that this is not a result of gross entitlement, any generation would have acted the same in this situation: the fact is that in relative terms, the only terms that matter, wages for young people have plummetted over the last decades. Given a choice between a shitty hour at work and £3.68 and playing Xbox, the rational young person chooses Xbox, any day. Low wages are keeping young people in the family home, or on street corners surprising people by being politer than expected, instead of doing work they would be doing if it paid a fair wage.
A more forward thinking young person will think: if I do this now, I will get experience and can get a better job later. Actually we have a scheme which exists already for people to get experience of working. Its called Work Experience. It lasts two weeks and can help you get a job later you might actually want. It is disengenuous to suggest that minimum wage jobs for 16 year olds prepare you for anything apart from more minimum wage jobs later. The work has to pay fairly, it is not as if it is an unpaid internship or something (and I am going to talk about what's wrong with them, later).
In case I needed any more economic arguments, young people actually make up the demographic who spend the largest proportion of their income on consumption. Think about it, they are not usually buying a house, raising a family or saving for a pension. The silly response to this is to say they don't need the money then. Well, some of them do, as I mention above. But on average they are more likely to consume, which actually boosts economic growth and creates more jobs for everyone! The very firms paying young people such low wages would probably make more money if all of them got together and decided to pay their young workers more. When young people do save, it is often for things like supporting themselves during university, which is about the most responsible investment one can make.
I have a final point, and this one is about exploitation. I'm not a Marxist, I don't really know what one is, but it is a simple fact of life that when the economy does its thing and money is generated, it comes in two types: wages and profits. Most of it is wages, which goes eot employees, and some is profits, which goes to people who own things. I am not disputing the justifiability of the system of private property underpinning our economic system, at least not now, I just want to draw attention to one thing. Among different sections of the workforce, the ratios of profits to wages are different. When young people are involved, the wages side of the ratio is lowest relative to the profit side of any demographic you care to look at. The gap between the value of what you produce and what you get paid for it is lower for young people than it is for anybody else. So if you buy into the argument that young people should be paid less, if you're an old person you're an oppressor and if you're a young person you're a willing victim.
That's why you should sign the petition, and tell anyone who cares to listen that age-based wage disrimination has got to end. It's unfair, stupid, and harmful for us all.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33865
PS I mentioned I will return to unpaid internships later. I will also look at the living wage campaign later: it's the crazy notion that people should be paid at least enough to live on.
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