Adult age, adult wage: ACTU backs the change
October 27, 2025 ACTU.
Australian Unions are backing a bid to end junior rates of pay in a case starting in the Fair Work Commission today.

The retail workers union, the SDA has applied to the Commission to scrap junior pay rates for workers aged 18 and over in retail, fast food and pharmacies so they can be paid adult wages.

Young workers under 21 employed under the key retail, fast food and pharmacy awards are not currently entitled to adult wages.

They are paid lower wages on a sliding scale that is out of touch with the cost-of-living pressures confronting young workers.

Workers under 20 are paid 90 percent of the adult award rate, 19-year-olds 80 per cent of the award rate and 18-year-olds just 70 percent of full award rates in retail, fast food and pharmacies.

Employer groups have got it wrong when they claim this will cost young workers their jobs, just as they did when women campaigned for equal pay fifty years ago and they said women would be squeezed out of the workforce.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President, Michele O’Neil:

“If you’re 18, you’re legally an adult. You can vote. You can drive. You can work the late shift. But in retail and fast food, you’re still paid like a kid.

“Right now, 18-year-olds earn 70% of the adult rate. At 19, it’s 80%. At 20, 90%. You only get full pay at 21 – even when the job you are doing is still exactly the same.

“That pay gap isn’t small. An 18-year-old needs 50 plus hours a week to earn what an adult makes in 38. The bills don’t get reduced because you’re younger. The rent doesn’t care about your birthday.

“The SDA – the union for retail and fast-food workers – has asked the Fair Work Commission to fix this. Once you’re legally an adult, you should be paid the adult wage. It’s straightforward and fair.

“Employers argue adult pay for 18-year-olds will kill jobs. We’ve heard it before. They said equal pay for women would kill jobs. It didn’t.

“They said cutting penalty rates would create jobs. It didn’t. Fair pay doesn’t kill jobs, but ill-founded employer scare campaigns can and do.

“Other countries have fixed this already. In New Zealand, young workers move to full pay after six months. In most Canadian provinces, youth rates don’t exist. Australia is behind, and young workers are paying for it in every shift.

“Most 18-year-olds in these sectors aren’t new to their jobs. They often started at 15 or 16. By 18, they know the systems, the customers, the weekend rush. Many can run a close. They often supervise older workers. Paying them less just because they’re younger doesn’t reward work. It unfairly discounts it.

“Employers may say now isn’t the time, but for them it’s never the time. Meanwhile, young workers choose between topping up their phones or topping up their travel cards.

“They skip dinner to cover rent and bills. They take extra shifts and fall behind in their studies because of the need to put in more hours at work. That’s not a fair start to adult life.

“This simple change won’t fix everything young people face. But it would send a clear message – your time is worth what the job is worth. Adult responsibility should come with adult pay.

“The ACTU supports the SDA’s case to end junior rates for 18-20-year-olds. When you turn 18, you’re an adult. You should be paid like one.”

freediver wrote Today at 6:48am:


It won't create unemployment.

freediver wrote Today at 9:01am:


The statistics won't change.

Employers aren't going to make positions redundant just because they have to pay adult rates to people over 18.

If there are 12 people working in a Maccas store there will still be 12 people working there when the changes come in.

The unemployment rate won't change.

Alternate money theory - the more money there is doing the rounds - meaning the more people being paid meaning the more people in employment - the greater the business activity and thus - for a properly run business (not the current mode of get -rich-quick) - the greater profitability.

It's a fine divide... the somewhat farcical Keating used to call all that money flowing around the peasantry 'an over-heated economy' - which is BS for saying 'the peasants are getting it too easy and will become lazy and lax, and it is up to we Overlords to stop that so we and our mates can prosper regardless of the businesses we run into the walls' ....

I was just discussing the 'competitive' nature of the human psyche .... and saying that it is not strictly necessary - in a CIVILISED culture/society - to promote all that 'competitiveness' as if we are on the edge of survival at all times.... only LESSER cultures seek to REMAIN in that mode of existence ...... and who in OUR society/culture persists in creating division, disharmonies and disruption as a matter of planned policy.

Such lights as Eisenhower and the like - after direct experience of the ultimate competition between humans, cultures and nations - always sought a better way... as does Trump who has brought the ME to the table without firing a shot or losing a single man.

'scarcet-eh' my long ago Economics prof used to utter.... after a while I grew to think he didn't actually KNOW much... but parrot he could....

19 and younger is really Kidzone (teens, children).
So yes, I agree at least a 20 year old, as an adult, should be paid adult rate. But that is where the buck stops.

That's because the Laws are in the wrong.

Kids should be allowed to be kids from alcohol, to sex, to marriage and even driving until 20 years of age.
The biggest stress to kids is being forced to grow up too fast before their time.
The thoughts of youth should be long long thoughts (Longfellow) - especially 20 years long.
Distraction Laws are being introduced come November in driving. 'Kids' are easily distracted.

Jasin wrote Today at 2:29pm:


Yes.

The workplace laws are wrong.

Adults should be paid an adult wage.

Jasin wrote Today at 2:14pm:


You don't get a 19yo or 18 yo rate on rent ?
A 19yo does not get additional time off or an expectation of a lower work performance.