Young people are often hardest hit by economic trouble, and the pandemic and cost of living crisis has been no exception. The years since the 2008 crash have approached a permanent crisis for young people, as wages have stagnated and traditional protections, like trade unions or further education, have declined.
Funded by the Alex Ferry Foundation, Your Time Your Pay looks at the experiences, knowledge, and situation of 16-24 year olds working in the UK. We commissioned polling company Survation to ask a representative sample of over 1000 young people 28 questions about pay, working time, conditions, rights, trade unions, and the cost of living crisis. Using those findings, we then worked with groups of young people to discuss their findings, talk about specific experiences, and co-produce recommendations.
What we found is widespread exploitation of young workers, a system that does not equip or protect young people in the workplace, and a need for unions to engage with young people in ways that matter to their situation.
Our Findings
1.65bn
in overtime wage theft every year
2/3
don’t have a written employment contract
3/4
of young people are not in a trade union
- Young people lose up to £1.65bn in overtime wage theft every year, and we estimate over 100,000 young people are never paid for their overtime.
- Nearly two-fifths of respondents did not have a written employment contract.
- Over two-fifths of young people have worked for no pay.
- Two-thirds of young people do not always get paid for working overtime.
- Three-quarters of young people are not in a trade union.
- Two-thirds of young people enter the workforce with no education about their employment rights.
Key Recommendations
- The government should abolish the National Minimum Wage rates based on a person’s age and uprate all under-23 year olds to at least the National Living Wage rate: £10.42 (from 1 April 2023)
- Legislation should be introduced to ban unpaid trial shifts.
- Expand automatic pension enrolment to qualifying over-16s.
- Unions and other stakeholders should dedicate effort and content to engaging with young people by amplifying their successes and busting negative myths.
launch event
At 6pm on Tuesday 25 April, we launched the report and heard from speakers including:
- Finn Oldfield – Young person involved in co-producing the report
- Cllr Patrick McAllister – Bristol Councillor – Green Party
- Nkechi Adeboye – Young person involved in co-producing the report
- Olivia Brooker – Young person involved in co-producing the report
Polling breakdown
Working for no pay
42%
asked to work for free
51%
have worked overtime
56%
are not always paid for it
- 42% of young people have been asked to work for free.
- Young female workers were more likely to have been asked to work for no pay 44% compared to 40% of young male workers.
- Of the cohort of young people who had been asked to work for no pay, 53% are black, African, Caribbean or black British compared to 40% who are white.
- Young people from the North East of England are more likely to have been asked to work for no pay with 61% being asked to work for no pay, 26% had never been asked to work for no pay and 13% who did not know. The region of the UK with the lowest number of young people being asked to work for no pay was Northern Ireland where only 24% of young people had been asked to work for no pay. The average across the 12 regions was 41%.
- 51% of young people work overtime and 56% of them do not always get paid for it.
Written employment contracts
38%
without a written employment contract
3 in 4
uncomfortable taking required breaks
16-17 yrs
most likely age group to not gave a contract
- 38% of young people either do not have or do not know whether they have a written employment contract.
- Only a quarter of young people feel comfortable always taking the rest breaks from work that they are entitled to.
- 16-17 year olds were the least likely age cohort to have a written employment contract with only 34% having a written contract. This compares to 59% of 18-21 year olds and 67% 22-24 year olds. 66% of 16-17 year olds either do not have or do not know if they have a written contract (46% do not have, 20% do not know).
Self-employment
- Around 10% of young people have been forced into self employment
- Young people from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to have undertaken self-employment as a financial necessity rather than a positive choice. 38% of Asian/British Asian, 39% of Black, African, Caribbean or Black British and 44% of mixed or multiple ethnic groups. This compares to 27% from a white background.
Future of work and society
37%
think their standard of living is improved
half
have taken steps to mitigate the cost of living
61%
agree CEO pay should be more tightly regulated
- Only 37% of young people think their standard of living is better than their parent(s) or guardian(s)
- 40% of young people feel much better or a little better about their long term career prospects than they did at the end of 2019.
- Almost half of young people have taken steps to mitigate against the cost of living crisis.
- 61% of young people agree that CEO pay should be more tightly regulated by government
- 56% of young people agree that excess wealth should be taxed in line with incomes
- Young women are more likely to feel that their current standard of living is worse than their parents’ generation at the same age. 34% NET of young women felt that their living standards are declining compared to 22% of young men.
- Only 21% NET of young people based in the North East felt that their living standards are getting better compared to their parent’s generation.
- Young people in Yorkshire & the Humber were the most positive about their living standards with 52% feeling that their living standards were getting better or much better than their parents’ generation. The average for feeling NET better across the 12 regions was 37%.
Zero-hours contracts
- 40% of young people have been employed on a zero hour contract.
- Young women are slightly more likely to have been employed on a zero-hours contract than their male counterparts. With 42% of young women being employed on zero-hours compared to 39% of young men.
Employment rights education
2/3
didn’t get information about employment rights at school
40%
don’t have a good understanding of pension entitlements
women
more likely to not get information about rights at school
- Almost two thirds of young people did not receive, or don’t know if they received, information about employment rights at school
- 40% of young people don’t have a good understanding of, or know about, their pension entitlements.
- Of the third that did, only 51% had a lesson about employment rights
- Young women are more likely to not have received information at school about employment rights than young men.
- Young women – 32% did receive information about employment rights at school, 59% did not and 8% did not know.
- Young men – 40% did receive information about employment rights at school, 47% did not not and 13% did not know.
Trade unions
73%
young people are not in a trade union
only half
would consider joining a trade union
20%
don’t feel comfortable joining a trade union
- 73% of young people are not members of a trade union.
- 49% of young people would consider joining a trade union, whilst 25% don’t know.
- Almost 20% of young people don’t feel comfortable joining a trade union.
Are You Exploited At Work?
Given our polling findings, it’s not unlikely that you might be exploited at work. If you are, or you’re not sure, here’s what you can do:
Unions
Even without the protection from abuse or support unions offer, joining one is a good idea. There is clear evidence that countries with high levels of trade union membership and density have much lower levels of income and wealth inequality. A well-organised future workforce will be a key factor if the UK is to build a more democratic and equitable economic future. Trade union members are paid more on average: 4.8% more in 2021. Previous research indicates the difference is even more dramatic for young people, with as much as a 39% increase.
Your workplace may have a specific recognised union which negotiates with your management, but even if you don’t, anyone can join a union that covers their sector or a general union.
The TUC has a union finder tool available here to help you find a union that fits your job.
Valla
Unions offer support with workplace disputes, but you can also approach organisations like Valla if you’re being treated badly.
If you have a formal dispute with your employer, Valla can help you – for free – organise your case, find what evidence you might need, approach tribunals, and generally guide you through the process. They also have an extensive collection of guides that explain your rights at work and a library of templates. They also have an extremely good TikTok account that discusses common workplace issues, answers questions, and details some tactics you can use – or could be used against you – if you have a bad boss.
We were delighted to work with Valla and they also created a fantastic series of short videos discussing the themes and issues described in the Your Time, Your Pay report – and finding a lot of agreement and similar stories from other young people in the replies.
- Example – Gen Z case of wage theft
- Unpaid trial shifts
- Trade unions
- Highlights from the Your Time, Your Pay report
- Rest breaks
- Zero hour contract rights
- Wage theft from young people
School Resources
Our work found that many leave school without enough education on this topic. If you’re at school, or work at one, you may be able to arrange for a few extra lessons on the subject – and if so, you can use our resources and lesson plans, produced as part of the same work between The Equality Trust, young people, and the Alex Ferry Foundation.
The lessons have been trialled with several schools across the UK with a positive response from both students and teachers. The lessons are split into two subjects and give students the opportunity to explore issues surrounding their employment rights.
This report was written by Rob Donnelly for The Equality Trust in collaboration with nine young people, including: Nkechi Adeboye, Olivia Brooker, Tomi Haffety, Shaun Horne, Finn Oldfield, Connor Pennington, and Hamidah
Saleem. We would like to thank them, and all those who took part in this research, enormously for their contributions to this report.
Our thanks to the Alex Ferry Foundation for funding this work.