Currently the national minimum wage of £5.73 is not paid to employees younger than age 22. The TUC is lobbying for this rate to be extended to 18 year-olds, who currently receive a minimum wage of £4.77. And the BYC believes there should be one single minimum wage for all workers over the age of 16.
More than 100 young people have emailed their local member of parliament to campaign for a single minimum wage.
Emily Beadsmore, chair of the BYC, said: "We believe whether your age is 17, 19 or 22, if you are undertaking the full range of duties, you should be paid the full rate for the job."
Since its launch in 1999, the National Minimum Wage has increased from its original rate of £3.60 per hour by 60% to its current figure and TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warned the recession is no excuse for employers to freeze the minimum wage.
He said: "Employers are wrong to call for a minimum wage freeze this year. Raising the minimum wage has already helped hundreds of thousands of families without causing significant job losses.
"The recession was caused by very highly paid people damaging the nation's financial system. It would not be fair to make the low paid suffer a wage freeze while City bankers still get bonuses and when there is no economic necessity to do so."
Calls for a single National Minimum Wage as it celebrates its 10th anniversary
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage - proving wrong the critics who said it would destroy jobs, but campaigners including the TUC and British Youth Council (BYC) still believe the Government could do more to support younger workers.
