McDonald's to scrap youth rates

McDonald's plans to abolish youth rates in all its restaurants from March, adding about $7 million a year to 16- and 17-year-old employees' pay packets.

"It's a decision we have made by looking at the employment environment we are in and deciding that we need to remain competitive," McDonald's communications manager Kate Porter said yesterday.

The fast-food franchise is one of the country's largest youth employers, with about 30 per cent of its 6000 workers under 18.