Thursday, 16 October 2025

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:43): If you are a casual worker in a fast-food joint – Domino’s, McDonald’s, KFC and the rest – and you are under 16, you are earning $13.28 an hour, while your adult workmates, who are 22, will earn about three times as much, at $33.19 an hour. This is for workers with the same skills and the same responsibilities. I am not talking about a difference between staff and supervisors; I am talking about two workers both making the pizzas, both taking the orders, doing exactly the same tasks, and yet the young person will be earning $20 an hour less thanks to so-called junior wages. It is not like young people are receiving ‘junior discounts’ on their food costs or bills or any other costs they may be paying. That is just not happening. Young people still have to pay the same amount as the rest of us for everything else in their lives, all while being paid only a fraction of the pay of their workmates over 21. It is just not fair that young people are being paid less for doing the same jobs as adults. Everyone deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and so-called youth wages should be abolished.