The government has paid car wash businesses at least $171,000 to take on young interns who are paid as little as $4 an hour under a controversial unemployment program.

By the end of April, 171 young people had started internships at businesses with "car wash" in the name as part of PaTH, a voluntary government program for unemployed Australians aged 17-24.

Under the program, internships last from four to 12 weeks, with interns working up to 25 hours per week. The Australian government pays interns $200 a fortnight, which can translate to as little as $4 an hour, on top of their welfare payments.

Companies that host interns get a $1,000 "incentive payment" for each intern they take on, and can also receive a subsidy of up to $10,000 for each intern they later employ.

Of the 171 carwash interns, 85 successfully completed their internship and 69 ended up with a job. This means that 40% of people who started internships, and 81% of people who finished them, were employed.

The employment department declined to provide more recent figures.

Australian Unemployed Workers Union spokesperson Jeremy Poxon told BuzzFeed News the use of the PaTH program for low-skilled labour like car washing was "inherently exploitative", and complained that the program offered no firm promise of ongoing secure work.



"The PaTH program does nothing to address the structural problems keeping kids out of work; namely, the lack of jobs available in the labour market. Instead, it mostly serves to provide businesses giant subsidies, and a compliant pool of cheap labour, which drives down conditions and wages for all young workers in low-skilled industries," Poxon said.