They don't get discounts on their bills. So why cut their pay?

She opined that small business owners are having to navigate an "economic hellscape" and are being "ruthlessly" pursued by the federal government over debt-tax on hold since COVID.

Well, empathy for mum-and-dad small businesses post-pandemic is something many of us share.

The solution isn't to take dollars out of the pockets of young workers. Trying to blame young workers and the need to improve junior wage rates is not fair and it is short-sighted.

Here are some facts to consider.

Junior rates apply to 75 awards, including in fast food, retail outlets and hospitality. These discount rates represent massive pay cuts for young people.

So much so, that 60 per cent of workers under 20 years old earn less than the minimum wage.

For example, an 18-year-old retail worker will need to work more than 50 hours a week to earn a full-time adult wage. In what world is this fair?

Despite doing the same job, it means that a 21-year-old waitress will get paid $29.04 an hour while her 18-year-old co-worker will get paid just $16.26 per hour. In what world is this fair?

If you've worked since you were 16 in a café, now at 19 or 20 why should you get paid any less than the person starting in their first job at 24?

The current superannuation system also discriminates against young workers, as super is not paid to workers under 18 unless they work 30 hours a week.

This is discriminatory and punitive. As with the compounding effect of super, even a small amount earned at a young age makes a big difference come retirement day and the gold-watch moment.

Young people don't get discounts on their rent or youth grocery bills, so why should they get youth wage rates?

It is unfair for them have to work harder and longer to pay the same bills as other adults.

Many young workers do not live at home, with the bank of mum and dad to back them in. Growing numbers are supporting themselves, getting themselves educated and often, contributing financially back to their families.

Employers often argue that if we raise wage rates for young people, they might have to stop hiring them. But that's the exact same argument Australian unions encountered trying to abolish lower minimum wages for women and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers.

Hiring young workers isn't a favour it's an opportunity. Young workers are energetic, skilled and active contributors to the workplace. Some of the most productive and hard-working people we've all worked with are young and they deserve to be paid appropriately.

Even across the ditch this is better understood. By comparison, in New Zealand, workers aged 16 to 19 earn 80 per cent of the minimum wage for the first six months in a job, before then progressing to the full rate.

In Canada, nearly all provinces have no youth rates of pay. In Alberta and Ontario, students under the age of 18 still get between 85-95 per cent of the full minimum wage.

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Eighteen-year-olds have the same social and legal responsibilities as other adults and deserve the same minimum pay rates. They're adults everywhere but in their pay packet, and that's infuriating for young people.

Young workers face enormous challenges meeting cost-of-living expenses.

There's no young worker who has bought their first home at the age of 18. They haven't been able to generate savings to tide themselves over during lean periods.

The least we can do is pay them properly.