Lost generation

New research reveals that, even though all groups have suffered a wage slump more than a decade long, it is young people who are hurting the most.

 
A report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies think tank shows that real wages for young people have plummeted post-recession – since 2008, wages are 9 per cent lower for workers aged 22 to 29, while wages for over-60s have recovered to pre-recession levels.

 
Between 2009 and 2011, when wages were hardest hit in the midst of the recession, young people experienced a fall in earnings by more than ten per cent, with the average fall for other age groups hovering at 7 per cent.

 
Why are young people bearing the brunt of a failed economic system?

 
Unite national youth co-ordinator Anthony Curley argues that it is young people who are on the frontlines of worker exploitation – they are much more likely to be in sectors rife with low-wage, insecure jobs with no union representation.

 
“There’s a proven connection between higher wages and unionised workplaces,” he said. “Young people are being funnelled into jobs in insecure, anti-union industries, such as services and hospitality. This is mostly because they have few other options.”

 
Indeed, although young people are more educated now than ever before, they face an economy in which the majority of jobs created in the so-called recovery are low-skill and low-pay.

 
Political choices

 
Curley argues that the misery young people have had to endure is not inevitable – it’s also the consequence of political choices.

 
“This new research just goes to show how important it is that young people get out and vote,” he said. “Young people’s wages are depressed for many reasons, not least of which is discriminatory legislation.”

 
Curley points to the UK’s tiered National Minimum Wage rates, which see young people under 21 and apprentices on lower rates.

 
“If more young people voted, they would see their concerns being taken more seriously by those in power,” he added.

Young people also face unscrupulous employers who seek to take advantage of young workers. Evidence given by the TUC to the Low Pay Commission earlier this year shows that more than 100,000 young people were illegally paid below the minimum wage – a jaw-dropping 52 per cent increase since 2010, when the Tory-led coalition government came to power.

And the exponential growth in internships has given employers a barely legal way in which to underpay young people who contribute to company coffers full-time.

 
A recent and telling example of this growing trend is the revelation that Placement UK, a recruitment company, brazenly advertises to clients that they can employ interns to fill permanent roles at ‘half the cost of employing people through traditional means’.

 
The recruitment company alerts employers to their rolling placement program, in which one student intern can replace another intern as soon as the first graduates.

 
“Using this method,” Placement UK advertises, “one of our clients has been using placement students continuously as their Office & Admin Manager … since 1997! So, for example, you could have a permanent graduate calibre office manager – for as little as £495 to £695 per month.”

As absurd as this advertisement sounds, Placement UK’s tactics are perfectly legal in a political climate in which big business calls all the shots.

 
Young freelance writer Rhiannon Cosslett, like Curley, also highlighted the importance of political action. In a recent Guardian comment piece she said:

 
“For my generation, a life of security and stability is the Holy Grail, but the only way we’ll get it is if we take a minute to truly stare at our paycheques and allow ourselves to stop contingency planning for a moment and get angry, to channel that anger and that disappointment and that bitterness into political action.”

 
Cosslett argues that blaming older generations for young people’s predicament is counterproductive:

 
“Instead of staying furious at the generation who vote, and have always voted, and so broadly got what they want, we need to take to the polling booths, stop relying on our parents to save us, and try and save ourselves.

 
Are you a young person who’s had enough of the status quo? Be sure you’re registered to vote by the deadline, April 20, and join our coalition campaign #NoVoteNoVoice. Find out more here.