Sir Roger Douglas's bill that would again allow the youth minimum wage to diverge from the adult minimum wage has been drawn from the ballot. So Parliament will get to discuss whether it's a good idea to keep pricing inexperienced workers out of the market. I wonder whether National will support the legislation. I do hope so; it looks likely that the abolition of the differential youth minimum wage explains a big chunk of the increase in the youth unemployment rate relative to the adult unemployment rate. Sir Roger's bill would only allow that future minimum wage reviews be permitted to set differential rates - it wouldn't immediately cut the youth minimum wage. So it can't be expected to have any substantial effect on youth unemployment rates for years. But it would be a step in the right direction.
The text of the legislation is here.
