Young people could get a massive pay boost in 'totemic' wage case   :)


Feb 9 2026
ABC News.
Companies that rely on young staff are fighting to keep paying 18 to 20-year-olds less.

In short:
Millions of young people could get a pay boost due to a wages case disputing "junior" rates.   :)

Business warns it could cause a collapse in employment.

What's next?
The Fair Work Commission has finished hearings but has not announced when it will hand down its decision.


Hard-working young people are sweating on a key wage case that could boost their pay, while businesses warn it could cause a collapse in employment.

"Junior pays rates" apply to people below the age of 21 in agreements covering sectors that employ a lot of young people: retail, fast food, and pharmacy.

Those discounts meant 18-year-olds are paid 70 per cent of the award rate, 80 per cent for 19-year-olds and 90 per cent for 20-year-olds.

Twenty-year-old Ben Walker has worked at a Woolworths supermarket in Sale, in Victoria's Gippsland region, for the past four years.

"I have a car, I pay board at home, I've got a motorbike as well. I'm paying adult fuel with still a child's wage," he said.

A portrait of a young man standing outside a supermarket loading bay.
Ben Walker's age means his employers pay him less than older people with less experience.

The high staff churn rate in supermarkets means he often works alongside colleagues who are less experienced but older than 21.

"I don't think it is fair — the fact that I've had more experience and yet I still get paid a little less,"  Mr Walker said.
'People won't be hired for jobs'
Some of our largest and most public businesses are worried about the impact of a case they have called "totemic" to the structure of employment.

In many cases, big employers like McDonalds and Coles are a stepping stone to full-time employment, with Woolworths alone providing about one in eight Australians with their first job.


Innes Willox says changes to junior pay rates may make it harder for young people to get jobs.

Ai Group's Innes Willox speaks on behalf of his members, who are employers, and says any big shift that increases staff costs will have dire consequences for young people.

"If there are substantial changes that makes it incredibly difficult for employers to hire young people,"  he said.
"Young people won't be hired for jobs, and that will be to the detriment of them … the workforce and the economy as a whole."

He said it went directly to the compensation businesses had to give to employees based on what they could do.

"Their output, their contribution to the workplace, the fact that they are new to the workforce, they're learning new skills," Mr Willcox said.

"It's often the first start into the workforce for a young person."

The same was said about women, union argues
Unions do not buy it.

"I wasn't born at that time but when women were paid less than men for doing exactly the same work, I know they [employers] argued exactly the same," said Sally McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

A woman in a suit talking to the press flacked by men in suits.
Sally McManus says life does not cost young people less, so they should not be paid less.

Ms McManus compared the cheaper rates paid to juniors — and employers' fears of change — to the situation more than 50 years ago, when paying women less for doing the same work as men was first outlawed.

"[Business] said if women got paid the same for doing the same, well, there'd be less women in the workforce, we'd hire men rather than women — and that turned out to be totally untrue."
In recent years, Australia has hit record-high levels of workforce participation, with both men and women toiling at levels never seen before.

Adulthood is 18 but full wages start at 21
Advocates argue that at 17 you can enlist in the armed forces, and at 18 you are legally entitled to vote, drive, smoke and drink alcohol.

But youth wages continue to crimp the earnings of those below 21.

Jayda was excited about her first pay cheque, then she looked at the hourly rate
Girl in school uniform, striped shirt, grey sweater, nose ring, black hair tied, slight smile. Graphic of money, coffee, chips.
Teens question why 18-year-olds are not paid as adults at work when they can vote and drink alcohol.

Decades ago, some of those rights did not begin until people turned 21, but that has been wound back.

Ms McManus said changing wage laws would bring them into line with reality.

"Back last century in the 1970s, 21 used to be the legal adulthood for a whole lot of things, and we got rid of that," she said.

"We made it 18 for everything except for how people are paid.

"You've got to draw the line somewhere about when someone's an adult, and where you're an adult, you should get paid the same."
Societal trends have also changed.

More people now complete a higher level of schooling in comparison to 20 years ago.

In 2021, 58.4 per cent of people 17 years and over reported completing year 12, compared with 39.1 per cent in 2001. 

Half a million workers could feel the impact
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, better known as the SDA or "the Shoppies", represents supermarket workers like Ben Walker.

National secretary Gerard Dwyer said people like Mr Walker were the reason they brought the case.

A man in a suit sits at a desk.
Gerard Dwyer says the current situation is not fair and it has to change.   

"It's about ensuring that anyone who's 18 years or older gets paid the adult rate of pay," he said.   :)

"They can drink, they can drive, they can vote — we as a community treat them as adults on every level, except when they walk in the door to work.

"They walk in there and they're expected to operate on discount wages. An 18-year-old only gets paid 70 per cent of what a 21-year-old gets, and we say that's not fair and it should change."
The Fair Work Commission's full bench heard evidence in the case in October and November.

It is an attempt to vary three "awards" — broad agreements that span working conditions in entire industries.

If successful, junior wages would be changed for workers covered by the General Retail Industry Award 2020, Fast Food Industry Award 2020 and the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020.

These agreements cover almost half a million young people, but the application could be broader.

If the union wins, there are around 70 other awards with provisions that let employers pay younger people less, and these would likely be challenged and changed as well.

"We'd like to think if we can get an outcome here that's positive for young Australians, that will be able to then flow to lots of other young workers who deserve adult rates of pay once they turn 18," Mr Dwyer added.

It is a big case for multiple reasons.

The SDA has been controversial in the union movement over accusations that, under former leadership, it made cosy deals with big employers and used union funds to campaign against abortion access and marriage equality.

Disagreement over impact and value
Businesses and unions dispute the potential impact of a change.

Ms Willox, from Ai Group, said it would be substantial.

"You can't pay a 16-year-old the same that you pay a 21-year-old who has perhaps had five years in the workforce and is much more productive, much more skilled, much more capable and much more able,"  she said.
The SDA said the claim did not seek to change rates for 16 or 17-year-olds.

In a statement, Woolworths said it was proud to be one of the nation's largest employers of young people.

"The junior pay rate system has offered an important pathway for promoting and incentivising employment opportunities for young people for many decades," a spokesperson said in a statement.

The supermarket pays the full adult rate from 20, rather than 21, and pays those in supervisory roles at adult rates.

Unions call for end to junior wages   :)

Trade unions want to end the junior wages scheme, which allows hospitality and retail employees under 21 to be paid less than their adult colleagues.

"While Woolworths is already committed to paying its junior team members above award rates under its retail enterprise agreements, any changes to junior pay rates must be introduced in a sustainable and responsible manner."

It called for a "balance" between value for its customers and "career pathways" for young people.

Ms McManus, from the ACTU, said it was a simple question of fairness for hundreds of thousands of hard-working young people.

"Think about those workers," she said.

"They don't get discounts on their rent, they do not get discounts when they go to a supermarket, they've got to pay the full amount.

"It will make a huge difference to them — it's about time."

Hearings before the Fair Work Commission have ended, meaning a swathe of academics, employers, peak bodies and workers have had their say.

The decision is pending and no date has been set for its release.

This would be a good and just thing.

But again white knight fails to understand that more money in the economy means more inflation.

The only way to get inflation down, which is the NUMBER 1 THING to help the poor including the young is to reduce demand in the system.

Either the public have be made a but poorer and spend less ( why interest rates go up ) or

AND HERE IS THE BIG ONE.

GOVERNMENTS need to reduce spending and reduce demand in the economy.

So things like reducing government programs like aged care , the NDIS  subs. Green subsidies the aged pension,  CGT exemptions for real estate  would suck money out of the economy, drive down inflation , drive down rents, drive down real estate prices and TRULY  benefit the young.

But you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

For example to get people to sell houses and help the young, you need to make it painful for the rich to own homes.
Property taxes and wealth taxes are probably the only way to do that and it's probably coming

aquascoot wrote on Feb 9^th, 2026 at 6:12am:

This would be a good and just thing.

Yes indeed.

There should also be another increase in the Age and other pensions due soon.

This would also be a good and just thing, don't you agree?

:)

Oh, wait...


aquascoot wrote on Feb 9^th, 2026 at 6:12am:

So things like reducing government programs like aged care , the NDIS  subs. Green subsidies the aged pension,  CGT exemptions for real estate  would suck money out of the economy, drive down inflation , drive down rents, drive down real estate prices and TRULY  benefit the young.

Of course.

As I asked you in another thread recently - perhaps it would help if poor people just died? That includes Aged Pensioners, of course.

I never received a reply from you. No surprise there.

And, if you believe any of those things will drive down rents and real estate prices then I have a bridge to sell you.

Sorry Carl

That's your selfishness talking.

Aged pensioners are not doing it tough.

Young people are .

Things need to be rebalanced