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Which country pays strip clubs to hire younger workers?

The British government has been offering financial incentives to strip clubs and other adult entertainment venues that hire teenage workers.

Under the umbrella of a wider scheme to boost employment, the Department for Work and Pensions gives $3,800 to adult establishments that provide full-time jobs – such as bartending or reception roles – to workers aged 18-24, the Sunday Times of London reports.

As long as the employees are neither “performing”, nor undertaking tasks with a “sexual purpose”, the establishments are eligible for payments.

Lesser payments are available to businesses that hire part-time workers.

The Labour MP who discovered the subsidies, Fiona Mactaggart, called for them to be axed. “I do not think parents would welcome this government-sponsored recruitment into the sex industry … These are entry-level jobs into a world of gross exploitation and violence,” she said.

The department responded it had advised job centers to only discuss vacancies in the adult industries, also including lap-dancing bars and massage parlous, with young people who inquired about them. They neither advertise nor subsidize performing roles, a spokesman said.

This article originally appeared on News.com.au.