Youth Pay in Catering and Retailing

Abstract

Reports a pilot study of part‐time youth employment among sixth‐formers in Greater Manchester and Cheshire which found that the vast majority of students worked in catering and retailing. Even though youth wages are no longer regulated by wages councils, and the recession could be expected to exert a downward pressure on pay, the pay levels found were significantly higher than the junior wages council minima that could have been expected to be in force in 1993. An overwhelming majority of the students were satisfied with their pay. For employers, the young constitute a relatively cheap and flexible labour source. Increasing numbers of students in sixth forms and higher education throughout the decade will apparently need to work, thus providing an interesting scenario for further research into youth pay and employment in the 1990s.