Government graduate job site removes vacancies that ‘did not meet National Living Wage requirements’

Error suggests 'a serious disconnect' from the young people Government initiative is responsible for serving

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A Government website has been forced to remove a set of graduate job vacancies which did not meet its own recent National Living Wage (NLW) requirements.

Careers advice site, Graduate Fog, reports that Graduate Talent Pool pulled the ads after it “questioned the legality” of the salaries offered.

The news has come just two weeks after the NLW was introduced for all workers aged 25 and over, having been set at £7.20 per hour. However, the changes were announced nine months prior to this which should have given the site time to set wages accordingly, reports Graduate Fog.

One of the vacancies which was on the site before being deleted was for a digital/content marketing internship with a London-based agency. Graduate Fog reports it advertised an hourly wage of just £6.94.

A further two - for a graduate analyst internship and a graduate marketing and research internship with a recruitment agency - stated monthly pay of £1,100.

Although the number of hours was not specified for either for these two, granting they were the standard industry 37 hours a week, the hourly wage would have been just £6.84 per hour, again, below the legal NLW for those over 25.

Founder of Graduate Fog, Tanya de Grunwald, described how the Government's initiative “appears to be in a state of confusion,” and said this may have come about because the UK now has four minimum pay brackets that are tiered according to age.

If including the Apprentice Wage, the Living Wage (London), and the Living Wage (outside London), the total comes to seven, with many set to change again in October.

Questioning why it was left to the graduate careers site to point out “such an obvious” problem, the founder said: “The fact that nobody at the Graduate Talent Pool was ‘on it’ suggests a serious disconnect from the young people they are responsible for serving.

“We’ve already questioned the ethics of a tiered minimum wage system based on age - now we’ve shown there are serious practical problems with it too.

“The Government must clarify what is and is not acceptable when UK employers advertise roles likely to be taken by young workers.”

Graduate Talent Pool was launched by the Government in July 2009 to help new and recent graduates “gain real work experience.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) - which is behind the Graduate Talent Pool initiative - told the Independent: “As soon as we became aware of these adverts, they were taken down, and appropriate checks have now been put in place to ensure this does not happen again.”

However, speaking to Graduate Fog, a spokesperson for the job site confirmed the vacancies had been taken down, “amongst others.”

The spokesperson added: “We are currently re-evaluating any vacancies which might be affected by the Living Wage by taking down the adverts temporarily, contacting the original employers, finding out whether or not they are aware of the change in legislation and whether their pay brackets have been changed accordingly.”

Just last month, the NLW was criticised by campaigners for penalising the youngest workers in society.

When comparing two people - one aged 24 and the other 25 - director of the Social Market Foundation, Emran Mian, said both are likely to have some work experience.

However, he added: “The person aged 24 could be paid less under the new rules and it may be tempting for some employers to hire them for that reason.”