Young Aussies deliver a wake up call to boomer Steve Price - after he called them out for not working hard

Young Australians have revealed why they lack motivation to work harder after being criticised by broadcaster Steve Price. 

Mr Price unleashed at younger generations on The Project amid calls to increase annual leave to five weeks a year.

Initiated by the powerful Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the campaign calls for extra leave to ease burnout in employees.

To date, Big W and Apple employees have five weeks of leave through enterprise agreements cemented through the SDA.

But Mr Price was not impressed with the calls for extra holiday time, and claimed he was glad he was no longer managing employees.

'We're trying to get productivity up in this country,' he explained.

'So we've got people refusing to go back to the office, working from home in barely washed tracksuit tops and bottoms, three days a week' he said.

'And now they want five weeks holiday.'

Ginnie Tunny, a millennial, hit back at Mr Price by arguing that the characteristics of 'work culture' had been permanently shifted for young Aussies.

'I think that especially for the younger generations, they see work completely differently,' she said.

Mr Price interjected, and claimed young Aussies did not want to 'work very hard'.

Ms Tunny continued: 'There's been a kind of death of your job is your identity or career.

Mr Price was quickly called out by young Aussies, who said increased cost-of-living and housing prices meant there was no reason to work harder.

'Where's the incentive for young people to work hard when working hard won't buy you a house or even afford you basic veggies,' one said.

'You get what you pay for, and it's not worth it to work hard,' a second added.

'There's literally no benefit to working as hard as you can.'

'When you're priced out of the market, priced out of holidays and priced out of necessities, what motivation is there to care or be productive,' a third said.

Another suggested employers should 'increase wages and introduce bonuses as incentives' for their staff to work harder.

'Nobody is interested in working themselves to death for scraps,' they explained.

A fifth added: 'I don’t want to work very hard for CEOs to make millions while I’m barley able to afford bread. 

'Even getting an extra week off doesn’t help when I have no money to actually do anything or go anywhere.'

A sixth said: 'Our generation is just sick of working hard to have all the higher ups take the credit and the bag. We know what we’re worth.'

A recent Productivity Commission report found that Aussies born after 1990 are finding it harder than prior generations to move up the financial ladder. 

The report on economic mobility showed that young Aussies are increasingly earning less than their parents did at the same age, breaking a significant financial trend. 

Poor economic outcomes following the global financial crisis were in part to blame for the weak income growth for young Aussies, the commission found.

'Younger Australians experienced stagnant wages and were more likely to obtain jobs with lower educational requirements and earnings potential relative to comparably-skilled younger people in 2001,' the report reads.

'Which can have long-term negative effects on their wages and occupational choices.'