Media statement Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Starting-out wage will help young people step onto job ladder
Everyone concerned about our alarming rates of youth unemployment should be celebrating today's announcement on the
Starting-out wage, says David Lowe, Employment Services Manager for the Employers and Manufacturers Association.
Then they will be looking out for more ways to help, he said.
"Without an incentive an employer with a choice between an experienced worker and an inexperienced worker will choose
experience every time," Mr Lowe said.
"Though there is no silver bullet for creating jobs for young people, the Starting-out wage offers a vital first step up
the employment ladder.
"Unless there is an incentive for taking on the added issues of employing youth workers, young people will continue to
be over represented in the unemployment numbers.
"The Starting-out wage will restore a form of youth rates that were abolished in 2006 and which proved, as predicted, to
hurt the very people its supporters were trying to help.
"Independent research from Pacheco at the time found job opportunities for youth would fall by nearly 20 per cent for
all teenagers if youth rates were abolished, but that turned out to be very conservative."
ends