Unfair junior rates abolished!

HUGE news: workers aged 18-20 years old in retail, fast food and pharmacy will be paid adult wages!

This long-overdue outcome is the result of years of union members campaigning for an end to “junior” rates of pay for adults up to the age of 21.

The landmark decision not only means that hundreds of thousands of workers across the country will get a significant pay bump, but future workers aged 18+ in these industries won’t be facing the unfair reality of earning a fraction of what their older workmates are getting.

Adult age means adult wage

The SDA – the union for retail and fast-food workers – lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in 2024 to scrap junior pay rates for workers aged 18+ in the General Retail Industry Award 2020, the Fast Food Industry Award 2020 and the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020.

Currently, each of these awards contain junior rates of pay for employees under the age of 21 (even when the job they’re doing is the same as someone over 21).

The specific rates differ slightly between each award, but generally, 20-year-olds earn 90%, 19-year-olds earn 80% and 18-year-olds earn 70% of the full award rates.

This week, the FWC announced its decision on the case – declaring that workers aged 18 to 20 should no longer be subject to “discounted” junior rates!

The changes mean that workers aged 18 to 20, who have more than six months’ experience with their current employer, will receive 100% of the full adult rate of pay for their classification.

Retail, fast food and pharmacy employ more than 1.5 million Australians and a huge proportion of these workers are under the age of 21.

This simple change won’t fix every struggle young people face, but it sends a clear message: 18 year-olds have the same social and legal responsibilities as other adults and deserve the same wage.

Wage justice

The FWC is yet to make a final decision on when and how the changes will come into effect.

Their provisional view is that the changes will be phased in over time starting from 1 December 2026, with the final changes to happen from 1 July 2029.

Unions will be challenging an extended phase in and arguing that it needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

Of course, business lobby groups are claiming that employers can’t afford this change and it will cost young workers their jobs.

Guess what: they said that women would be squeezed out of the workforce, when women began campaigning for equal pay fifty years ago… they weren’t. They also said that cutting penalty rates would create jobs. It didn’t.

The take away here? Fair pay doesn’t kill jobs!

Want to be part of the movement that drives better pay for workers?