ASDA has announced that it is scrapping its ‘under 18’ pay rate to offer equal rates of pay for all colleagues doing the same job, regardless of whether they’re 16 or 60.
The move, which has been seen as a victory for the GMB union, comes in the same week that new age discrimination legislation has come into force – and been criticised for not forcing employers to level the pay playing field in this way.
Until now, it’s been common practice for retailers to pay under-18s a lower rate of pay for doing the same job as someone who is over the age of 18.
ASDA believes this is no longer acceptable and has become the first supermarket to announce plans to put a stop to the practice.
The supermarket has more than 5,000 colleagues who are under 18 working in its stores across England, Scotland and Wales and is investing over £1.7 million in upping their pay rate to match the pay of older workers.
This will see the average worker under the age of 18 take home an extra £300 over the next year.
The National Minimum Wage for people under 18 is currently set at £3.30 an hour, as opposed to £5.35 an hour for those over the age of 21.
Earlier this week government minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said the government had done this to ‘protect’ younger workers.
Sarah Dickins, head of reward & recognition at ASDA, said: “We simply don’t see why young people under the age of 18 working in our stores should be paid any less for doing the same job as someone a bit older.
“With the new age discrimination rules coming into force this week, we’ve taken another look at all our policies and have decided we no longer think it’s acceptable to have different pay rates for different age groups – you should be paid for the job you do, regardless of your age.”
Jude Brimble, GMB national officer for GMB members in ASDA said: “It has been a long-standing GMB principle that people should be paid the rate for the job they do, regardless of age. So this is a very important breakthrough at ASDA for young workers.
“GMB welcomes this and consider that the Low Pay Commission should follow suit and recommend that this become the law of the land.”
ASDA operates a number of flexible working packages to support younger workers including a ‘store swap’ scheme that allows those studying away from home to work in a store near their college as well as in their home store.
ASDA also has a number of younger workers amongst its 10,000-strong ‘Seasonal Squad’ who work for the supermarket for at least ten weeks every year often over the Christmas period and during the summer months.
