Warning, this may get a bit ranty, and maybe a bit disjointed.
There are many things I get tetchy about - the child in me would say 'It's not fair.' I talk back to the tv - especially during the news. It's cos I care. It's cos I'm passionate.
Today I heard something that annoyed my inner youth worker. But also cos I care about equality and fairness. Today I heard it announced that minimum wage was being increased by 11p (which is not what infuriated me - though it is only half the rate of inflation) but that is only for those 21 and over. Meaning that those aged 16-20 are still being disadvantaged further as their minimum wage is being frozen. All this in a time where youth unemployement is ... do you know what I don't even know the word.
What can we do?
I love working with young people as they are optimistic, they still think they can change the world. Yes they are a little bit broken at times - but aren't we all. Why is the job a 20 year old does worth less than a 21 year old?
I'm glad to be part of a church that pays its workers living wage.
I'm not sure what to say. But it annoys me. I feel helpless in this. I'd love to change the world, and I believe by doing my small part in my little section of the World that things can change. I can pray, but I want to do more than that. The song 'God of Justice' has the line - "move us into action." I want to show my faith in all that I do. I just hope that my little bit is enough.
I think you're completely right. It's insane that younger workers get paid less than their older counterparts for the same work - from the age of 16 upwards, people can need to support themselves, and it's hard enough to do that on the adult minimum wage, let alone the lower rate.
ReplyDeleteBut, I do understand why it's like it is, and I don't think it's black-and-white. There are lots of imperfect arguments for the present system - younger workers are less likely to be supporting themselves; small businesses struggle to meet their wage bills as it is; in some businesses labour needs to be cheap in order to make it worthwhile employing people rather than using automation; some jobs simply aren't worth minimum wage and it's already an act of grace for employers to use people for them anyway. It's a horribly broken system, where we value people's time at as low a rate as they will accept; it barely works...but it means that people have to get paid at least something that looks like a decent wage for their work. I'd love to see a living wage be a minimum wage, but I fear that would actually push up the cost of living even further - that may not be a bad thing (look at wage equality in Finland, for example, where shop workers and IT professionals have fairly similar salaries because the cost of living is so high) but it would negatively impact a lot of people.
It sucks that we pay younger people less for the same work. It's not fair, and it shouldn't be the case. But, we're in a situation where I don't think that changing it would be as simple as we'd like to think.