Am i being age discrimated against?

Hannah111

I don't know if i'm on the right section for this but any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

I am 20 years old and work as a receptionist in a hotel, i'm full time and am paid £5.50 an hour. I have worked there for a year and am the most experienced receptionist there.

Yesterday when i was on shift, one of our new receptionists had left her pay slip in the office. I know i shouldn't have, but curiosity got the better of me and i had a peep. I couldn't believe that she was being paid £5.75 an hour, (25p more than me....may sound daft, but adds up to over £400 a year!!) She is 3 years older than me but has less experience and less responsibilty than me. I am absolutely furious about this but i am unsure if i'm able to do anything about it. I feel that my manager is really unapproachable, and there is no union that i'm aware of.

Does anybody know where i stand on this issue, inparticular, would i be covered by the new age discrimination act? is my age preventing me from being paid the same or even more? I am aware that the minimum wage for over 21s is £5.35 an hour so why would they be paying her more than me?

Thanks for any advice.

Oldernotwiser

The minimum wage for someone of your age is £4.45, so you are being paid minimum wage + £1.05. Your colleague is being paid minimum wage + 40p. I imagine that you are being paid extra because of your extra responsibilities. I suppose the mimimum wage structure assumes that it's the older workers who will have the greater responsibilities, which is not the situation here. You can't make a case for the minimum wage structures being discriminatory, I'm afraid.

chant1l

The bottom line is that your company values you less than you do, irrespective of legality or who gets what you can only sort this to your satisfaction by talking to the boss calmly and reasonably. Should nothing come of it, go get another job, better paid with better prospects. Stay where you are, and you will stay where you are...

Bossyboots

The other issue is that when you employ new staff, they come in on the market rate wage whereas existing employees' pay increases may not have kept pace.

This is what happened where I work when new staff were brought in at higher salaries than existing staff and it wasn't that others weren't valued, simply that you couldn't get staff at the lower rates.

Following a staff revolt last year things have now been equalised so it shouldn't happen again (in theory). I dealt with it by simply pointing out to the bosses that it was inevitable that the market rates had increased faster than existing staff salaries and that it would seem prudent in the interests of staff morale to address the issue and see if my theory was correct. That way they didn't need to be told we knew it was a fact, just let them think they were doing the checking.