Unite welcomes pay rise for youth and community workers – but with a warning

Unite has welcomed a national pay rise for youth and community workers but calls on employers to ensure pay meets a minimum of a rise in line with inflation in future years.

Thousands of Unite members, and all community youth workers and youth support workers across England and Wales will receive a 3.3 per cent pay rise, backdated to 1 September 2026.

The workers are covered by the JNC Pink Book (officially The JNC Agreement), national terms and conditions handbook for youth and community workers in England and Wales. The Unite members covered by the agreement work as community youth workers and youth support workers primarily working in youth clubs and youth hubs.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

These workers do a vital, difficult job in their communities and we are pleased to see they have been rewarded with this pay rise. Unite will keep fighting to ensure our members in this sector are rewarded with yearly rises over and above rises in RPI and are treated with the respect they deserve.

Workers covered by the agreement design and run activities and workshops covering topics such as relationships, mental health, bullying, drugs, and violence prevention, provide a safe space where young people can explore their identity and place in society and offer mentoring and guidance to help young people deal with challenges.

The JNC has also agreed to reissue good practice guidance on work life balance. Youth workers often work irregular, unsociable hours including weekends and evenings and the new guidance will support local agreements on flexible working and work life balance.

Unite national officer for the community youth and not for profit sector Siobhan Endean said:

We are happy to announce this pay rise for our members in the sector, who are key workers. We also welcome the commitment to update the guidance on work life balance as new legislation on flexible working comes in to force next year and will work hard to ensure these are in place for our members.