York Senior Councillor "horrified" at apprentice wages
A York Councillor said that bar work is paying young people more than apprenticeships
A senior councillor from York is "horrified" at apprentice wages in the city and a review is now underway.
Coun Paula Widdowson said that bar work is paying young people more than apprenticeships. She goes on to say that there is still an impression that the trades which the council offer as apprenticeships are limited.
The government national minimum wage for new apprentices is £4.81, but the council instead pays a rate of £6.83 in the first year and £9.18 in the second year for those under 23.
A report to the staffing matters and urgency committee said the council was looking at ring-fencing opportunities in its businesses administration department for care leavers.
But Labour group leader Coun Claire Douglas said she had repeatedly been told the council’s wages were not high enough for people trying to forge adult lives in the city.
She added: “They’re on apprenticeship rates – there is no way that they can afford to live in the city.
“I really think that we should be having a look at apprenticeship rates for the under-25s, particularly care leavers, otherwise it’s just not feasible for them to stick with that apprenticeship programme.”
“I am slightly horrified that we think that that’s an acceptable pay rate.”
Coun Widdowson, who was standing in for council leader Coun Keith Aspden, said: “I don’t see how anybody in their right mind can live on less than a fiver an hour. Or if they’re 17, 18, 19 or 20, how they can live on £6 an hour.
“Bar staff are paid £7.50 an hour and then they get tips of £30 – £40 per session on top of that.
“I am slightly horrified that we think that that’s an acceptable pay rate.”
The council’s head of HR Helen Whiting said apprentices over the age of 23 at the council were given the national living wage of £9.50, slightly less than the Living Wage Foundation rate of £9.90.
The public sector apprenticeship target had been scrapped earlier this year
The government scrapped its public sector apprenticeship target earlier this year, but the council is to continue to aim to have apprentices make up 2.3 per cent of its workforce.
Including local authority schools, the council had 79 apprentices during 2021/22 – thereby hitting the 2.3 per cent target. Excluding schools, 36 people started apprenticeships during 2021/22.
Coun Widdowson added: “We’ve got very few apprenticeships. That number is low because most of the apprenticeships are actually being upskilled. They are not what I would say is new people coming in – it’s being used for various people through the system already.”
More work needed to be done on the communications strategy around apprenticeships at the council, Coun Widdowson added.
“Anybody who talks about apprenticeships says two things,” she said. “One: they’re not paid well enough so ‘they’re not worth me going on them’. Two: they’re for electricians or plasterers.”
The council offers apprenticeships across all its departments, including business administration, engineering, ICT, social care, accounting, marketing and communications.