Closed petition Raise minimum wage of 18-20 year olds to that of 21 year olds

Closed on 20 January 2017

The current minimum wage for 18-20 year olds in the UK is £5.30. The current minimum wage for 21- 24 year olds is £6.70. This is a huge gap even though the cost of living is exactly the same; the cost of food, rent and bills is not lower - so why is the rate of pay?

For every 40 hours a 21 year old works, an 18 year old has to work an additional 10 hours to earn the same amount of money - this is essentially an extra week's worth of work every month.18-20 year olds are constantly exploited in the workplace because of this. Working for 200 hours pays around £1,060 before tax and national insurance, working for the recommended 160 hours pays around £870. For a whole month this is not enough for an independent person to live off.