Rotorua youths are worried they will be taken advantage of with plans for a new starting out wage.
The National Party has announced plans to introduce a new starting out wage of $10.80 an hour, which would come into effect from April 1.
It would allow employers to pay eligible 16- to 19-year-olds no less than 80 per cent of the minimum wage, which was $13.50 an hour.
Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson said the introduction of the new wage would help provide young New Zealanders with more opportunities to enter the workforce.
The move has received a mixed response in Rotorua, where youths have raised concerns over the move, believing it implied they were not as deserving of as much money as others who were older.
A Rotorua employer also raised concerns over the change, saying it will lower wages and undercut older workers.
However, Rotorua's Chamber of Commerce supports any move that helps give youths an opportunity to move into work.
Western Heights High School student Missy Gibson, 17, said youths needed money for tertiary education, apprenticeships and trade training and didn't believe lowering the youth wage was setting them up for a brighter future.
"I am a young person, unable to vote, unable to choose. I did not choose the National Government and I certainly didn't choose to be given a $10.80 wage.
"I believe that young people like myself are no less deserving of a fair wage than any other worker, and that this move is implying that young people are not as worthy as those more mature."
She said youths often heard adults complain about teens not understanding the value of hard work and not appreciating what they were given, but she wondered what there was to value and appreciate in lowering the wage.
"By giving us such a pathetically low wage - especially compared to the Australian minimum wage of $20 - it shows us that long, hard hours of work just aren't worth it."
Other youths Viliami Talia'uli, 18, and Ciaran Cullen, 17, said the lower wage was demeaning and didn't recognise the hard work they carried out.
Chamber of Commerce chief executive Roger Gordon said youth unemployment was a concern and this would help those who weren't in work already get into the workforce. He said the lower wage was only for a limited time.
"We support any initiative that sees our youth being offered an opportunity to move into work," Mr Gordon said.
"I think one of the key aspects for this group of young people is for them to gain work and life skills as soon as possible and this encouragement of them into work is a positive move."
He said concerns that employers would choose to hire youths over skilled older people because they were cheaper were unnecessary because the skills, knowledge and life skills of those who were more mature would still be attractive.
However, Fraser Newman from Rotorua's McLeods Booksellers disagreed and believed the move would undercut older workers.
He said that as an employer, he was against the lower youth wage idea.
"This move will simply lower wages, undercut older workers and further push New Zealand towards being a low-wage economy.
"Youth are already at a disadvantage as soon as they walk into the workplace," Mr Newman said.
Comments on The Daily Post Facebook page on the issue were varied, with some suggesting the Government look at incentives to keep youths at school, and others suggesting they pay themselves that rate and see how they could survive. Others wondered how the lowering of the youth wage would motivate youths to want to work rather than be on a benefit.
"How about an incentive to stay at school something along the line of 10k if they graduate at the end of Year 13 then the government pays it out. The person can then put it toward further education or a house or a decent car. By that age they will be less likely to just piss it away," one Facebook user said.
" ... "... Lots of teenagers dont get hired unless they have experience and they cant get experience because they can't get hired, so lowering it will get them in the door, but than i agree that lots of adults wont get hired due to being paid higher just like how employers keep everyone on casual contracts since they brought in that 3month trial buzz ..."
Starting-out wage