Not that we needed a report to confirm it for us, but turns out young people are kinda getting the short end of the stick on the job market in the UK.
What it means: Obviously older people earn more than young people – but the gap between the two groups' earnings is growing, from 14.5 per cent in 1998 to 21.9 per cent today.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) thinks joining a union would help, and has launched a new app called 'WorkSmart' in an attempt to get young people informed about their rights and wages – and ultimately, convince them to join a union.
The principle behind it is what's called 'collective bargaining': one worker in a union with thousands of others can more powerfully demand a change in their conditions than a single worker. Membership peaked in the 1970s in the UK, with 13 million people being part of a union.
Union membership has fallen in the past few years – it's now at 15.7 per cent of the workforce, with young people seriously underrepresented despite being the group most likely to be in a precarious job.
