The minimum wage for workers aged 16-18 is £4.55 (April 2020-21)
For workers, aged 18-20 is currently £6.45 (April 2020-21)
Readers Question: What are the minimum wage rates for 16, 17 and 18-year-olds. Should the minimum wage be increased? Should there be a minimum wage rate for children under 16?
Minimum Wage Rates from April 2020
- £8.72 – 25 and over
- £8.20 – Age 21-24
- £6.45 – Age 18-20
- £4.55 – Under 18
- £4.15 – Apprentice rate. (An apprentice means the firm has to devote a certain time to training the worker. Traditionally apprentices get lower pay to compensate the firms’ cost of training them.
Can 13, 14, and 15-year-olds get a minimum wage rate?
No, the minimum wage rate only applies to workers who are 16 and above.
The youngest age your child can work part-time is 13 years old, with the exception of children involved in: television, drama, film. [1. Child employment Direct gov]
Do young workers benefit from a national minimum wage?
Benefits of Min Wage
- A minimum wage is an effective tool for increasing wages of the lowest paid group of workers.
- Since the minimum wage has been introduced in 1997, unemployment has fallen, suggesting fears over real-wage unemployment have been misplaced.
- Minimum wages can increase labour productivity. Workers can feel more motivated with higher wages (efficiency wage theory). Also, if firms have to pay more, then they have an incentive to invest in workers and capital to increase labour productivity.
- In an era of low real wage growth, the minimum wage has played an increasing role in causing higher living standards.
Concerns over minimum wage
- An argument advanced is national minimum wage increases costs for firms and this can discourage employment opportunities. If the minimum wage rate rises too fast, it could cause unemployment in the future.
- The gap between workers under 18 and over 25 means that firms have a cost incentive to substitute older workers for younger workers. In labour intensive industries (e.g. fast food) firms may prefer to give longer hours to the youngest workers because they are nearly 50% cheaper than mature workers.
- Blackmarket. Another issue is that a legal minimum may encourage firms to pay young workers in cash and avoid legal restrictions.
- Regional inequality of wages. A national minimum wage can cause unemployment in the northeast (where wages are low) but have little effect in London, where wages are higher.
Does a minimum Wage encourage Labour market Participation?
- In theory, increasing the minimum wage for 16-18 year old workers would increase the incentive to join the labour market because work will become more attractive compared to studying at school and not earning.
- However, the minimum wage for 16 and 17 year-olds is still relatively low. It is £4.20 for people under 18. Therefore, the benefit of working on the minimum wage may still seem insignificant compared to the benefits from studying and getting qualifications which will enable higher lifetime earnings.
- Also, many 16 and 17 year-olds probably live rent free therefore there is not the same economic necessity to go out and get a job.
- Personally, I think the effect of a minimum wage for 16-18 year olds is relatively insignificant, I can’t think of many students who would give up A-levels just so that they could go and work in McDonald’s for £4.20 an hour.
- What is most likely is that there will be an increase in the participation of young workers doing part-time jobs in addition to studying full time.
Case for Increasing the Minimum Wage Rate
- Unfair firms can pay a lower wage rate to young workers doing the same job as people over 21.
- Efficiency Wage Theory – the idea if you pay a higher wage, you will get greater motivation and labour productivity.
Problems of Increasing the Minimum Wage Rate for young workers
- Could lead to unemployment and fewer job opportunities. Many firms may be unwilling to employ workers if there is a significant increase in the minimum wage rate. This would particularly affect labour-intensive industries like hairdressers and cafes.
- Arguably young workers lack experience, and so firms need to spend time and money on training them. Therefore a lower minimum wage rate is justified to pay for the costs of on-the-job training.
How Does the UK compare to other countries?
The UK minimum wage compares well compared to other countries like the US, Spain and Portugal, but still lower than some EU countries. International minimum wage rates
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currently i am ‘working’ at my local vets. I sweep and mop the floors, clean the cages, wash and dry up and help out when i’m needed. and in return they teach me about what they do in operations and let me stand in on them and on the consultations. I’m 16 and do not get paid for any of it. yet i still consider myself lucky because it’s all great experience for the future( i want to be a vet) and the more experience i get now means its a bit easier in the future. i do the occasional work for some family members and it nice to get the money even if its not much, but i don’t bother with spending it( and don’t see how others can spend soo much! whilst living at home) and am currently saving every penny i get for a car etc.
In some ways I think that the min wage for 16-18yr olds should be raised- as we are basically adults,and some of us do have a full time job. i dont think it fair that people who are sometimes only a year older get much better paid for doing the exact same work or less then the 16-18 yr old. But in other ways it shouldn’t because we dont really have the experience which is needed.
But whatever we get are we ever going to say its enough? because there is always going to be someone on a hire wage and its only for a couple of years on £3.53 until the min wage changes for 18+
Heyy Everyyone 🙂
Thouqht i’d drobb iin && leave a comment cos iim aht school && this is problii dah closest thinq 2 bebo ohn here ! Hha’ Anyways have a qood ONE ! 😉 But i qeht paid £14.00 an hour && im 16 turninq 17 iin Auqust! 🙂
Peace ! x
Boom.Boom.Smack…!
I am a 16 year old girl and have been working in a cafe for nearly 2 years now and i get £4 an hour. I am their head waitress and when their is a problem it all gets put on me because i have to train all the new staff and do my job as best as i can. I work about 27 hours a week and still don’t think we are getting paid enough!!
I am a 14 year old girl and personally I think that is way too low! There are more and more young people not moving out of home but sponging off their parents nowadays. I don’t know when this article was written but now that it is the law to complete your A levels, I think the pay should be increased to encourage young adults.
Good complament nice job!!!!!!
But here in los angeles california i get payed $ 8.00 an hour for 48 hours a week!!!!! In two weeks is 96 hours and my check is 750 every two weeks!!! I get payed alotttttt!!! And also i work at mcdonalds for fulll time job and i am 19 years old i have work here for 3 years and i recieve taxes about 4780 a year!!!!!!
I fail to see how stacking shelves requires experience. Stock rotation and time management arent rocket science. Im 15, and im 16 in 2 months, and i have been looking for a job since last year. The only place hiring was a hair dresses, who told me i would earn £1.10 per hour, and they only had 11 hours available for me to do, at STUPID hours. £11 per week? ontop of full time education, after-school revision, and homework? HA! I turned them down. it was so not worth it. I get £20 cleaning my grandmas bingo hall which takes me about 3 hours when her cleaner isnt in. She even said that the 21 year old cleaner takes 5-6 hours, does teh same job as me, and has a horrible attitude. yeh, she was a cleaner in a school so she has more experience then me, but hoovering a large area and washing some tables doesnt require experience either.
I know i would do a better job then half the 18-21 year olds out there, but unfortunately, there are no jobs available for me. I will have to wait a few months and then go looking again. Ive already went to a shopping centre and asked 18 places in one day, 15 werent employing, and the other 3 either payed BADLY, or you had to be 18.
No wonder theres so many drop outs in school today. If teenagers have to turn to selling drugs in order to have enough to be able to get trains, buses, go and see a film etc, i think id prefer to get £100 within 2 hours, then work 100 hours to get that same amount. im not a stranger to hard work either, but this is not right.
Want to know another thing? if you are classed as a young offender (been arrested under 18) you dont get £30 EMA (EMA is an allowance you get at 18) youget £60-100 PER WEEK. The council also make sure you get a job whilst in or out of school so that “you have no reason to offend again” You know what, Governments crap. Criminals get payed more then students who work hard to get somewhere in life? MAKES NO SENSE.
Hahaa, i laugh at the people on here who say we dont deserve to be payed more because we arent old enough and have no experience. Excuse me, but my friend works in a cafe, he waits on tables, cleans tables, washes dishes, and gets £3 less then a girl who is 18. he does more, works longer, and is generally a better waiter. he smiles, he chats to the customers, hes just better. yet he gets payed way less? IT DOESNT MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE. you should be payed according to how much work you do, how well you do it, and how long you do it for.
I’m 15 years old and going into my last year of school. But once i finish school and i’m hoping to move out. This is off topic to the current conversation, but could people give me tips on what to do should i rent a flat out on my own or with a friend/somebody else. Also would i be able to afford the rent of a average rent a month while going to college and being in part time work.
I work in a news agents in hampshire and i only get £3.53 ph. Plus my parents are very strict with money and never give me any( I’m not exaggerating), so I get about £50 on top of college. I’m not on the EMA either, which is frustrating as i have friends who have £30 plus a better paid job and money from their parents. Minium wage should be the same as over 18’s, its very rare you even see 18 year olds living on their own now anyway. meaning there is no point in the getting paid more than us, life is a *****.. mine is anyway!
I think you should get your facts straight because I work at McDonalds, and I earn £5.50 an hour, not £3.53.
I work as a lifeguard and i am on constant alert on poolside 8 hour a day with one 30 minute break while still being alert for anything happening in the pool. I am looking out for danger and preventing serious accidents or death yet i am getting paid 2p more than the minimum wage is this really fair i am 17 not 12 i am trying to support myself instead of scrounging off parents but when i get paid i only go and get taxed leaving me not much better off than when i started my shift SORT IT OUT GORDON
A minimum wage does not mean you have to pay the minimum. Companies can, of course, pay more than the minium of £3.53. It just means they are not allowed to pay less than £3.53.
Its a classic opportunity cost scenario really. Stay at school or work. Stay at school and you lose out on the wages you could earn or the ability to do more in your free time rather than homework. So even if the min wage is £3.50 you may value the work at £5 since you get the wage plus more control over your free time. The deal is now to decide whether you feel that £5 per hour now is worth more than what you could earn in the future with a higher qualification… problem is how do you value the future? Investment appraisal techniques help but that’s for another day. Chances are that most people will actually equate £5 now with the present and not look to the future.. (after all in the long run we are all dead!) I fancy that a low minimum wage for this age group coupled with an economic recession will have little impact on improving the participation rate. Plus, getting more of this age group to participate now may well have a detrimental affect on the future productivity and competitiveness of the uk!
I get 6.77 a hour and im only sixteen – you just need to find the right place … i spent a year and a half looking for a job and finaly two came along – i get 150 quid a week and work after college – just search for the right thing.
Ref Kim Knight,
me and my friend are both 17 and work on the sales team at a stone company. We believe you work as hard as you want to work and age doesn’t come into the equazion. Afteral thats what insentives are for arn’t they. we get paid £3.53 hourly and work 35 hours a week. We are often left to run the office when managers are away. we are fully trained to make sales order purchase items, invoicing and aranging deliveries. its not about age as i think you will be the type that is in a bog down job that isnt going anywhere, one of many people in a big firm that doesn’t no nothing and never speaks to the owner. most proberly some secretary that passes on message and that holds a grudge to us younger people that have the time to progress unlike some people Kim that are deep down not happy with their job. Im sorry but you want to be gratefull that we all work and not spunging off the taxes YOU pay.
I work for McDonalds food store ofcorse everyone has heard of it 🙂 im only 17 and i earn 4.35 an hour and if i work well it will go up by 10p every 6 months this isnt bad but could be much better alot of people our age complain that this is a low wage but it just genually good to have a job at this age plus mine is secure.
I live in Australia and get $16.13 an hour which is roughly equivalent to £8.97. I am 17 and when i turn 18 this rate will go up to $18.97(£10.56) then eventually i will go casual and get $22.76(£12.68) not bad hey?