Opinion: Hot Issue - Should the minimum wage be the same for all age groups?

YES - Dan Wood, chair, British Youth Council

We championed a minimum wage for 16- and 17-year-olds and we believe that rights to benefits, including the national minimum wage, should be equalized at 16. Public policy should never discriminate on the grounds of age.

Workers should be paid equally for work of equal value. Young people often have the same responsibility as older people and they pay the same price for food, clothes, housing and heating. Our own research found that a significant number were unhappy with what they saw as discrimination in the workplace based on their age.

Financial pressures are pushing greater numbers into employment while engaged in full- or part-time education. A lower rate arguably compels at least some to work longer hours, damaging their education and health to avoid what they see as increasingly frightening levels of student debt.