You try living on youth rates or the minimum wage

The upris­ing amongst New Zealand youth against low pay and inse­cure jobs is being backed by the Mar­itime Union.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says all work­ers should sup­port young peo­ple who are tak­ing part in cam­paign activ­i­ties, includ­ing indus­tri­al action at fast food out­lets and the recent street ral­lies and con­certs.

“What we are see­ing is the inevitable reac­tion from work­ing class young peo­ple who have become a low-wage gen­er­a­tion.”

He says youth rates need to be abol­ished, and there also need­ed to be ongo­ing increas­es in the min­i­mum wage.

Youth rates are the youth min­i­mum wage paid to young peo­ple who are 16 and 17. Cur­rent­ly the youth min­i­mum wage is $7.60 per hour, and will go up on 27 March 2006 to $8.20 per hour.

The adult min­i­mum wage (which is for peo­ple aged over 18), is $9.50 per hour, going up to $10.25 on 27 March 2006.

Mr Han­son says young peo­ple are being advised to go into debt for ter­tiary edu­ca­tion, pay for hous­ing and accom­mo­da­tion costs that are going through the roof, save for their retire­ment, and are con­stant­ly pres­sured by adver­tis­ing to buy con­sumer goods.

“Try doing that on the min­i­mum wage, let alone youth rates.”

Mr Han­son says the recent resis­tance in France to attacks on low-paid young work­ers was an indi­ca­tion that this was an inter­na­tion­al issue.

“We are wit­ness­ing the long over­due polit­i­cal and social awak­en­ing of a new gen­er­a­tion.”

He says the attacks on vul­ner­a­ble work­ers will con­tin­ue, with the recent intro­duc­tion to Par­lia­ment of a bill for “tri­al employ­ment peri­ods” in New Zealand.

“The fact is that any law like this would be used by some employ­ers to hold the whip hand over their employ­ees, espe­cial­ly those who are young, vul­ner­a­ble and unsure of their rights.”