Youth Rates

The Ministry of Justice has published an opinion that the current regulations setting a different minimum wage for 16 and 17 year olds to 18+ year olds may be ultra vires as a breach of the Bill of Rights.

This is just an opinion, and has no legal status, but if a court agreed with the opinion, this would be huge. It would mean that for 16 years youth rates had been established in such a way as to be unauthorised. This would be a huge embarrassment to the Department of Labour which has drafted the Act and the Regulations.

Two unions are already pledging to sue *employers* for up to six years of back wages for those who got youth rates. This is misguided to put it even mildly. As the youth rate regulations have been deemed legal for 16 years, you can’t blame an employer for relying on official government advice that they are legal.

Incidentally in this debate on youth rates, I should point out that while I am a strong defender of there being a separate minimum youth rate, I personally as an employer don’t have different pay rates based on people’s age (and I do have a number of employees under 18). But what works for me and my business is not the same for all employers.