Thousands of teenage workers across the country are being paid well below the minimum wage.

A report published today by the Low Pay Network reveals that some 16-year-olds working in hairdressing are paid £1.53 an hour. The minimum wage for 18-year-olds rises from £3 to £3.20 from toworrow but Government minimum wage legislation does not cover 16 and 17-year-olds.

The Low Pay Network found that in care work, hairdressing and shops some employers offering jobs to under-18s pay as little as £1 an hour. The worst paying sectors overall for average hourly rates were:

Hairdressing: £1.53 for 16-year-olds, £1.60 for 17-year-olds

Driving: £1.60 and £1.80

Care work: £1.75 and £1.79

Motor trade: £1.91 and £2.08.

The report points out that under the Wages Councils young people used to receive minimum wage protection. If the old rate for a 16-year-old hairdresser was uprated by inflation it would have reached £2.04 in April 1999, significantly above the average now paid to this group.

Despite the poor showing in some sectors, the average hourly rate for 16-year-olds was £2.36, 78 per cent of the minimum wage of £3 payable to 18-year-olds. Some young people are also expected to work long hours - an average of 38.25 for 16-year-olds and 38.13 for 17-year-olds, though significant numbers of jobs were for 40 hours or more.

Gabrielle Cox, who compiled the report, said: "The Government has recognised the importance of statutory minimum wages in order to protect adult workers against exploitation in the workplace. It is extraordinary that it has at the same time left the youngest and most vulnerable of workers completely without protection. We constantly receive phone calls from parents who are amazed that there is no minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds."

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