Professor Michael Bittman, from the University of New England, wrote the report "Living Standards of Apprentices". He says most apprentices struggle to buy the necessities of life.
"Particularly a first and second-year apprentice's income is exceptionally low. It's so low that it's, in most cases, below the Henderson poverty line," he said.
About 70,000 young Australians begin apprenticeships every year but according to the professor more than 50 per cent of them drop out, and he says it is because of the money.
"Most of them would get, you know, under $300 a week," Professor Bittman said.
He says they survive by living at home or working second jobs.
Jim Barron, chief executive of Group Training Australia, says given some trainee wages are not much higher than the dole, it is a wonder apprentices are able to survive in cities like Sydney and Melbourne.
"Here in Sydney, a first-year apprentice in the metal trades industry, receives an award wage of something like $13,000 gross a year," he said.
"This translates into an after-tax income of approximately about $231 a week. That's about $46 below the poverty line and about $20 more than the dole.
"So we really do need to make sure that when we are attracting school leavers into the trades we do financially renumerate them properly, in the first couple of years particularly."
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