Defeat for Ministers over lower minimum wage rate for young workers

Thursday 26 May 2016

Ministers have been handed a rare defeat over plans to allow a lower minimum wage for young workers.

The plans by Social Security Minister Susie Pinel were rejected by politicians after Deputy Sam Mezec challenged them in the Chamber – the Reform Jersey member won a 24-17 victory, persuading three Assistant Ministers to buck the party line.

He argued that it would be discriminatory and unfair to pay workers less based purely on their age – and added that the Social Security Minister’s advisory forum of bosses and workers said there was no concrete evidence that it would have any impact on economic growth of job opportunities.

But there was concern from some Members that not setting a lower rate for young workers could hold back increases to the main minimum wage rate.

Deputy Mezec said: “It was a rebellion, which was quite interesting – that doesn’t usually happen for my propositions!

“The Council of Ministers were trying to say that needed us to agree to this change so that they could instruct the Employment Forum to investigate a lower minimum wage for young people, but when we examined the legislation, it was clear as day that was simply not true.

“There is nothing in the law as it stands stopping the Social Security Minister from asking the forum to investigate it.

“And it was simply the wrong thing to do – literally the day before we committed to approving age discrimination legislation, it was completely hypocritical.”

The minimum wage in Jersey is currently set at £6.97 per hour – the equivalent of an annual salary of £12,685.

The law already allows for reduced minimum wage rates starting at £5.09 for trainees, but the law doesn’t allow for different rates for different ages.

The UK system changed this year to set the minimum hourly wage at £7.20 for over 25s, £6.70 for people aged 21-24, £5.30 for people aged between 18 and 20, and £3.87 for those under 18.