Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 (No. 99) - Austria (Ratification: 1953)

Article 3(4) of the Convention. Differentiated minimum wage rates based on age. The Committee notes the comments made by the Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) according to which pay practices consisting in paying lower wages to employees under 18 years of age than those paid to adult employees constitute inadmissible discrimination on grounds of age. The BAK refers to a number of judicial decisions which have confirmed that wage differentials based on age are discriminatory and considers that the debate which goes to the very heart of equality of treatment in employment and occupation is still topical. The BAK also criticizes the Government’s view that minors can only be employed in certain activities and should therefore be paid less, arguing that protective legislation, such as the Federal Minor and Young Worker Employment Act, cannot offer any justification for differentiated remuneration on grounds of age. In this connection, the Committee wishes to recall paragraphs 169–176 of its 1992 General Survey on minimum wages in which it pointed out that the quantity and quality of work carried out should be the decisive factors in determining the wage paid and that the reasons that may have prompted the adoption of lower minimum wage rates for groups of workers on account of their age should be regularly re-examined in the light of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the BAK and also to provide copies of any recent judicial decisions on this matter.