Petition · past parliament
To end the National Minimum Wage brackets based on age.
Rejected
17 signatures
What the petition asks
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) has different wage brackets based on age. £3.87ph - under 18s, £5.30 ph - 18-20, £6.70 ph - Over 21s and from April 2016 £7.20ph - over 25s. This petition holds it is ageist to pay different wages simply based on age when people do the same job.
The government argues that young people are disproportionately unemployed and it is 'justifiable' to pay them less to encourage employers to employ young people. The Equality Act 2010 allows this however it also states it is illegal to pay women or ethnic minorities a lower wage under any circumstances, even to encourage their employment if they are disproportionately unemployed. This highlights the hypocrisy of different wage brackets based on age. Why is it acceptable for age but not sex?
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 7 Oct 2015 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 12 Oct 2015 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
17
Status
Rejected
Rejected
12 Oct 2015
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.