I had this concern until I realized teenagers have to go to school so there’s a huge chunk of the day that they cannot work. Adults have to take those shifts.

This realization also led me to determine that these jobs aren’t purely for teenagers despite hearing all my life burger-flipping was for teens.

Not all teenagers are required to go to school.

Dropping out is possible, and usually 18/19 y/o don't have high school

Plus, kids from unstable homes where the parents need them to earn money will sometimes drop out of school to help their family. It's best not to incentivize that.

very specific problems have very specific solutions. if this is the main concern, make it illegal to schedule school-aged children for shifts during school hours.

And then that creates other sorts of specific problems. What of mine conventional schools? Seniors who make their own schedule ? Home school kids ? Are now drop-outs dropped from making an income ?

18/19 year olds shouldn't have a lower minimum wage. They're adults. Younger teens, sure.

Really? The OP provided an example of country and a policy.

You’ve stated an opinion, as a theory with zero evidence.

Youth unemployment in Australia is ~double the unemployment rate. 11.8% vs 5.6%

https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/youth-unemployment-ra...

Employment is more complex than hourly wage.

Easy on that accusatory tone mate. They didn't claim that as their own opinion, but merely gave an alternative viewpoint: "One concern is that...".

Yea I’m in a bad mood, and that’s not their fault.

Fair enough to call that out.

Is this a big issue in Australia?

It's not. It really only affects those working part time jobs from 15 to the age of 18. Full time work is not allowed in most Australian states until the age of 17.

There's far fewer 15-18 year olds than there are 18-65 year olds. There's also fewer again that can work during school hours.

The idea that teenagers are being paid too much or have an advantage in Australians case and that therefore this should prevent changes to minimum wage laws is just a distraction. It keeps getting brought up by people desperate to push a position but who don't want to argue about the far bigger issue of adults trying to survive on minimum wage. Teenagers are an edge case in this discussion and they really shouldn't be the focus.

I don't know about big, but when I was at school-leaver age I would pretty regularly hear about friends getting way less shifts at their job once they hit 18.

Sort of, it's well known that you're unlikely to get a job at McDonald's as an adult