NUS demands an end to age discrimination in the national minimum wage
"I get paid £2 less than the people older than me at work, even though I do exactly the same job. The staff and other workers think they can put more of the workload on me, because I won’t complain as I am younger."
NUS has today published our submission to the Low Pay Commission’s annual of the National Minimum Wage. This follows our submission two months ago on the special consultation on the exemption of apprentices from the minimum wage. We are calling for an equalisation of the minimum wage so no-one gets paid differently for the same work simply because of their age.
Key findings within the submission include:
- Students workers are concentrated in the lowest paid sectors of the UK economy and are vulnerable to exploitation and poor employment practises.
- Students believe that working more than 10 hours a week has a significant negative impact on their learning, but many are forced to work in excess of 15 to make ends meet or because of employer pressure.
- Bullying and harassment due to age is common for student workers, a situation exacerbated by the youth and development rates.
- Students working whilst studying are doing so to support their education with average costs for an 18 year old full-time student being more than twice the amount available through the education maintenance allowance.
Read the full submission here (pdf, 2.8mb).
View a selection of responses to the NUS survey of students (pdf, 1.1mb).
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