Young QSR workers stand to gain over junior pay rates abolishment

Roughly half a million workers in retail, fast-food, and pharmacy will benefit.

Aussies aged 18 to 20 in fast food are amongst roughly half a million young workers to benefit from the Fair Work Commission’s abolition of junior pay rates.

Under the new rules, young workers between the ages of 18 and 20 who have spent more than six months working in industries such as fast-food, general retail or pharmacy will receive “100% of the full adult rate of pay”.

Before, those aged 20 have been paid 90% of the adult rate, 80% for 19-year olds, and 70% for 18-year-olds. The current percentage rates for adult junior employees with less than six months of experience with their current employer, however, will stay the same.

Rates for those under 18 years old will not be changed.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), the trade union that applied for the rate changes, said it is inequitable that an 18-year-old should receive just 70% of the adult rate even when they are treated as adults in every other respect and face the same cost-of-living pressures as workers aged 21 and above.

“18-year-olds are adults. They struggle with the same cost-of-living pressures as every other adult. They do not receive a discount on their rent or the petrol they buy to get to work just because they happen to be 18. Now they will be paid the same as other adults,” Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary of the SDA, said in a statement.