
The Injustice of Young People’s Pay - dialoguediscou
https://medium.com/dialogue-and-discourse/the-injustice-of-young-peoples-pay-378dd66988de
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lawtguy
According to this blog entry ([https://minimumwage.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/30/new-
minimum-wage-...](https://minimumwage.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/30/new-minimum-wage-
rates-for-under-25s-why-are-they-different/)), the lower minimum wage is for
youths is to prevent youth unemployment. This was based on some data the
government has (not specified in the blog) that indicates that that younger
workers were being passed over in favor of older workers. That implies that
youth workers are less valuable (or perceived as less valuable) and thus not
worth paying a greater wage.

As an American, I find this pretty strange as most minimum wage jobs are low
skill. Since the skill threshold is low, there's not much to be gained by
experience, so an older worker isn't much more valuable. I'd expect this lower
minimum wage to tilt the market in favor of hiring youths since you get
roughly the same work for less. I'm curious to see what the governement's data
actually is that justifies the lower youth minimum wage.

