Thin end of a wedge !

The Fair Work Commission has decreed that the age differential on pay between workers aged twenty and twenty-one will be scrapped from July, 2015.  In delivering it's finding, it said there is  " little difference in the work or duties of those 20 or 21 ".    Of course, that same argument could equally apply to the age difference between twenty and nineteen.

This ruling will require the employee to have served at least six months with the same employer for it to apply, but it seems to be sounding the death knell to the entire pay in relation to age structure that has applied for centuries.   We seem to be heading into an era where any job carries a universal rate of pay, irrespective of whether the employee is male or female - and irrespective of age.

In the early twentieth century many young people left school at age fifteen and gained an apprenticeship to learn a trade.  They were expected to gain skills by a combination of tuition from their employer and attending night classes at what was known in those days as a Technical College.   They usually lived at home and had family support to offset the low pay they earned - and in their early years they contributed little profit to the business of their employer.

Today, many teens have left the family nest and are living independently a long way before their twentieth birthday.   If they are an apprentice, they attend TAFE several days a week - at their employers expense and therefore contribute little profitability in their early years.   If their pay is elevated to an adult wage it will be a positive disincentive for employers to even consider hiring and training apprentices.   It seems that the " social standards " people are ignoring the increasing value that added skills bring with age.

We already have a huge problem with young unemployed.  Finding that first job is difficult in a society  where unskilled labour is steadily being replaced by degrees of automation.  The job of " checkout chicks " in supermarkets is being eroded by customer scanning stations and the days when attendants rushed to fill the tank at petrol stations are long gone.   If equal pay - irrespective of age - applies in hiring it is inevitable that those with maturity will have the advantage.

It is easy to be seduced by the argument that whatever the job, the same rate of pay should apply to what work is to be carried out rather than the gender or age of the person who will do that work.   That could probably apply if the function is to simply thread a nut and a bolt to hold two widgets together - but if the job requires problem solving skills and the ability to make decisions between various courses of action, then the maturity and skill that comes with age enters the equation.  The less skilled are not worth the same money as the highly skilled.

This decision by the Fair Work Commission has opened a Pandora's box.    Pay differentials by age that have been long accepted will now be challenged and removing the loading between twenty and twenty-one will be seen as the thin edge of the wedge.   It will not help the young unemployed find their first job !