First published on Friday, July 12, 2024
Last updated on Friday, July 12, 2024
In 2022, there was an estimated half a million children under the age of 17 working across Australia. That’s a huge number of young people joining workplaces around the country.
There are many advantages to hiring young people in your business. They offer fresh perspectives and can help your company grow, making it a better place for your whole team.
Certain industries in Australia—including the hospitality, retail, and fast-food industries—hire a lot of young workers. But let’s be honest, it’s not always a walk in the park.
To be employed in part-time, casual, or holiday jobs, children must be at least 15 years old. If they’re younger, certain requirements must be met. Regulations specify the types of employment that children over 13 but under 15 can take on.
It’s also important to know that a child is not considered employed only when they are being paid for the work they do. Once a child is engaged to carry out work, paid, unpaid, or for some other form of reward or compensation, the child is considered employed in the eyes of the law.
On that note, let’s dive deeper into what the law has to say about businesses hiring young workers.
What does the law say about hiring young workers?
Much like most other Australian employment laws, it depends on where you are.
That includes every state and territory maintaining different guidelines for the minimum age at which a child can start working.
For example, Tasmania, South Australia, and New South Wales don’t currently have age restrictions on work. But they all maintain different, strict restrictions to protect children and prevent instances of child labour.
In the Northern Territory and Western Australia, the current legal working age is 15 with some caveats for industries that children under 15 can be engaged in. In Queensland and Victoria, the minimum age to work is 13.
Further laws apply to how children can be employed while they are schooling, the hours they can work on schooling and non-schooling days, the types of work they can undertake, requirements for people supervising children in the workplace, and a lot more.
Not following these regulations can be a crime in some parts of the country and may result in penalties and fines.
The other aspect of hiring young workers that you should consider is the health and safety implications of children in the workplace. In 2021-22, Safe Work Australia found that younger workers under 25 were more likely to make a serious workers’ compensation claim.
You can learn more about how to protect young workers in your workplace, and the specific risks they may be vulnerable to in our blog post.
How do you pay young workers in Australia?
One big perk of hiring young workers is junior pay rates.
These rates allow businesses to hire workers aged twenty-one and younger and pay them a percentage of the national minimum wage or their corresponding award pay rate. This percentage generally increases every year as they get older and progress towards earning adult pay rates.
So, if you hire a 17-year-old, their award may entitle them to 60% of the adult pay rate. But after their 18th birthday, they’ll get a bonus birthday present in the form of a pay increase. Depending on their award, once again, their pay may go up by 10% to 70% of the adult pay rate.
Not all awards include junior pay rates. When that’s the case, young employees will get paid the same rate as adults.
Special award rates will also apply to employees under 21 who sell or serve alcohol. This is generally the case for young employees who fall under the Hospitality and Restaurant Award. For young employees who fall under these awards, they will get paid the adult rate for the classification they fall under regardless of how old they are.
If the employee isn’t covered by an award or agreement at all, then they will be entitled to a percentage of the national minimum wage.
How do you make sure you’re compliant when hiring young workers?
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is currently pushing for junior pay rates to be scrapped—calling them discriminatory. They argue that junior pay rates open the door to young workers being exploited and unfairly paid less than their adult co-workers despite doing the same work.
On the flip side, there’s a push to ensure that if junior pay rates are scrapped, the new wage structure is sustainable for employees and employers.
In June 2024, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) applied to remove junior rates for employees who are 18 years or older from the following awards:
- General Retail Industry Award 2020
- Fast Food Industry Award 2020
- Pharmacy Industry Award 2020
Stay tuned to see how the case develops. In the meantime, the Australian employment law system can feel like a maze—it’s hard to navigate.
That’s why the best practice for most businesses is to get the support of employment relations advisers.
These advisers are always on hand to give you legal updates and guide you on how these changes may impact your business. Plus, they’ll help you stay ahead of the game!
Unlock the benefits and talent of young workers while safeguarding them and your business with BrightHR. Explore all the ways end-to-end software and compliance services can help your business grow with a personalised demo.
