A bid to scrap the age differential in minimum wage rates will be made in Tynwald next week.

Last month the government came under fire for legislating a lower minimum wage for younger people.

In October the minimum wage will go up to £8.25 per hour, an increase of 40p. But that figure is only for workers aged 18 and over.

The rate for school leavers under the age of 18 is to go up from £5.85 to £6.15 and the rate for ’development workers’ - employees aged 18 and over who are in their first six months of employment and are on an accredited training programme - from £6.95 to £7.30.

But Douglas East MHK Clare Bettison, who last month blasted the ’arbitrary’ lower rate for 16- and 17-year-olds, has tabled a policy motion for the final sitting of the parliamentary year to state that Tynwald believes the adult minimum wage should be applied to all workers from the age 16, and the lower rate should be scrapped.

Her motion also calls on the Council of Ministers to work with the minimum wage committee to ’explore means of delivering this’ and report back to Tynwald by January.

rates

The new minimum wage rates were approved by Tynwald in June, but during that debate, Miss Bettison criticised the fact that while a previous 18 to 25 age bracket for another lower rate had been removed, the baseline rate for 16- and 17-year-olds remained.

She argued that as Tynwald acknowledged ’that 16- and 17-year-olds are absolutely capable of exercising their right to vote in a democratic election, they should absolutely be able to be paid at the same rate as their counterparts delivering the same work in the same companies on our island’.

Other backbenchers lined up to criticise the lower rate and Jane Poole-Wilson MLC said that although the differential between ages was legal, it went against the sentiment of the Equality Act.

At that point Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly acknowledged the comments but warned there were concerns about some sectors of the economy being able to cope with major changes.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan has argued different rates for the age sectors were there to help young people onto the ’employment ladder’.

He said that Treasury would be prepared to re-examine the issue.

But he warned that increasing the lower rate might risk reduced opportunities for younger people.