Blow for Aussie teenage workers hoping to get superannuation

Teenage workers suffered a major blow when a group of leading companies rejected calls for employees under the age of 18 to receive pensions.

The Council of Small Business Organizations Australia (COSBOA) has refused to respond to calls from Industry Super Australia (ISA) advocates, who have argued that young workers should be added to the super payroll.

Those under the age of 18 currently only benefit great if they work more than 30 hours per week for the same employer.

That means more than 90 percent of teenage workers don’t get paid when they show up for their shift, according to ISA figures.

COSBOA CEO Luke Achterstraat said the measure was simply not financially viable.

“It is expensive to employ people facing severe labor shortages at the moment and adding supers to a younger cohort of workers would only make it more expensive to employ people who are not clearly not motivated by the supers at this stage of their careers,” said Achterstraat. news.com.au.

The current employers’ pension guarantee is 11 percent.

Mr Achterstraat said many small businesses were already having to pay higher salaries to their staff due to shortages.

“Adding super will make that person’s job 11 percent more expensive, or else it will be taken out of their salary, meaning they will receive less take home pay,” he said.

He added that many of the workers in question were high school students looking to earn some pocket money.

According to a report According to the ISA titled Super Start to Work, the switch to super would affect 375,000 Australian workers under the age of 18.

“Extending the Super Guarantee would mean that the average U18 would receive a $2,600 increase in their Super Balance before the age of 18 for the work they do,” the report said.

Teenagers have been the only working group in Australia not to benefit from the super, since the system was created in 1992.