Hon John Banks
ACT Parliamentary Leader

February 8 2011

Wage Increase Won’t Help Youth Unemployment

National’s decision to increase the training and new entrants’ minimum wages at a time when 23 per cent of youth are unemployed is not helpful, ACT Parliamentary Leader John Banks said today.

“Increasing both the training and new entrants wage erodes the incentives for businesses to hire young people, leaving youth out of hope and out of dignity,” Mr Banks said.

“It’s bad enough that twenty-three per cent of our young people seeking work cannot find it. But worse still is that this figure rises to 34 per cent for young Maori.

“Paying young people $4.50 an hour to sit around on the dole is throwing in the towel.

“ACT would like to see young people given the opportunity of work, the ability to gain experience and a chance to contribute to our economy.

“This will only happen if we give employers the right incentives to do so by reducing impediments to youth employment, not increasing them,” Mr Banks said.

ENDS

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