Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Around 15,000 young people in this country are legally paid less than the minimum wage. They are discriminated against for no reason other than their age. Some of those who represent those workers in Mandate are in the Gallery now. There will be a protest by those affected at 1 p.m. outside the Dáil.

We have a national minimum wage of €12.70 an hour. It is an amount that is clearly inadequate given the cost-of-living and housing crises. However, 19-year-olds are legally allowed to be paid 90% of that, or €11.43 an hour, 18-year-olds can get €10.16 an hour and those aged 17 years and younger can get €8.89 an hour. Those are poverty wages. When these young workers go into the shop to buy groceries, they cannot offer up 70%, 80% or 90% of the cost. If they are renting, they cannot say to their landlord “Here is 90% of the rent I owe you”. If they are driving a car, they do not get a discount on their petrol.

The Minister for Justice knows that it is illegal to discriminate on age but that there is a legal exemption built in to allow young people to be paid less despite doing the same work as their colleagues in the same workplace. It is legal but it is definitely not just. Not only does it discriminate against young people but it is also used to put downward pressure on wages for older workers and to reduce hours for older workers who are on higher wage rates. An end to this discrimination would be a win for all workers.

We proposed the equal pay for young workers Bill more than a year ago to do away with this legalised super-exploitation but the Government proposed a timed amendment delaying its passage through Second Stage by a year. The excuse then was that the Low Pay Commission was due to report on sub-minimum wage rates. It is now a year later. The Low Pay Commission has reported and its report was very clear that sub-minimum wage rates should be abolished. The Government has no place left to hide. Will it now agree to progress our Bill guaranteeing equal wages for young workers?

I will finish with a quote from a 16-year-old worker who first contacted me when we introduced the Bill on First Stage. They said:

We are not asking for much, we are asking for equality and fairness for teenagers, a lot of whom helped businesses through thick and thin over the last two years. We go home from school and switch from school uniform to work uniform and go back out the door again only to earn less than our co-workers ... this is insulting, discriminatory and truthfully not worth working for and all we want is to be treated the same as everyone else.

Will the Minister tell that young person today that they will be treated the same as everyone else? Will she tell young workers across the country that the time of legalised super-exploitation and discrimination will come to an end?

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