We brought in the apprenticeship job creation tax credit to encourage employers to hire new apprentices in eligible trades by providing a tax credit of 10% of the wages payable to eligible apprentices in the first two years of their apprenticeship program, benefiting more than 10,000 businesses in 2010.

These include: a new apprenticeship job creation tax credit, which provides eligible employers a tax credit equal to 10% of the wages paid to qualifying apprentices in the first two years of their contract, up to $2,000 per apprentice per year; a new apprenticeship incentive grant that will provide $1,000 per year to apprentices in the first two years of an apprenticeship program in one of the nationally recognized red seal trades; and, a new tools tax deduction of up to $500 to tradespeople for the cost of tools in excess of $1,044 that they must acquire as a condition of their employment.

Overtime is not recompensed in accordance with the Social Charter in Belgium and Luxembourg (in the public sector), and young people between 15 and 18 are not paid adequate wages (50% of adult salary) in the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain or Belgium (apprentices in their first year).

Certain groups of apprentices will receive an income equivalent to the social minimum wage.

(a) where, under the legislation of a Member State, benefits are calculated on the basis of an average wage or salary, an average contribution, an average increase or on the ratio which existed, during the insurance periods, between the claimant's gross wage or salary and the average gross wage or salary of all insured persons other than apprentices, such average figures or ratios shall be determined by the competent institution of that State solely on the basis of the insurance periods completed under the legislation of the said Stat ...[+++]e, or the gross wage or salary received by the person concerned during those periods only;