Youth report 'misses the mark'
By Sean Malloy
A recent report titled A Living Wage by the Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition and State and Territory Youth Affairs Councils and Networks (STYACN) has angered young people in its leniency towards ALP policies on youth wages.
The document appears as an attempt to win young voters for Labor in the recent election by prettifying the federal government's policy on youth wages.
"Youth councils and networks should be presenting information in the interests of young people, not to the benefit of the Labor Party", said Zanny Begg, Democratic Socialist spokesperson on youth issues.
Begg's main concern with the document is the six recommendations which "basically regurgitate what the ALP government was already doing".
The recommendations include the urgent implementation of a competency-based wage system as outlined in the Carmichael Report and endorsed at the 1992 Youth Jobs Summit in Canberra.
"The essence of the Carmichael Report is to create a trained and educated pool of unemployed for business to select from", says Begg.
"Implementing the Carmichael Report means eliminating full-time jobs for 15-19 year-olds. The government is renaming unemployed 15-19 year-olds 'trainee' 15-19 year-olds."
A Living Wage argues that removing age-based wages and introducing a competencies wage system will improve young people's wages.
"The ALP is introducing a minimum wage of $125 a week for people under 18 and $150 a week for workers over 18. This is an age-based difference."
"Arguing that the Liberal $117 a week proposal is bad for under 18s while the ALP's $125 a week is acceptable because it involves training misses the point altogether. These proposals are for wages below the poverty line; they condemn young people to poverty. The government's competency-based wage structure is creating 'equal pay for equal work' by lowering older workers' wages as well", Begg added.
According to the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the poverty line for an independent individual is $196.64 per week.
"Youth organisations should be campaigning for a living wage above the poverty line, that's a priority", Begg continued. "A Living Wage merely calls for yet another study to establish living costs. The studies have been done. On the one hand the report strongly advocates the end of age-based wages, and on the other it defers calling for concrete action to implement decent wages for young people.
"Trainee and apprentice wages should be replaced with full adult wages, whether young or old. In fact anyone, working or not, should have a decent income well above the poverty line."