If I-1433 passes, the state should move to establish a lower youth minimum wage for all workers under the age of 18.
Evergreen State voters will not just be facing a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton this November. Washington ballots will also include Initiative 1433, which would increase the state minimum wage to $13.50 by 2020. If it passes, and it likely will, many workers would get a raise. But unless there’s a move to protect teenage workers, young people would be left behind.
“Washington's ballot initiative means fewer summer and part-time jobs for teenagers, which would thin out résumés and make it more difficult to start careers.”
Federal law permits workers under the age of 20 to earn no less than $4.25 an hour for their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment. But since more restrictive state laws supersede federal laws, young Washingtonians cannot take advantage of this exemption.
Proponents of minimum-wage increases argue that their effect on job availability is limited. For adults, there is some evidence to support this. But when it comes to young workers ages 16 to 19, the weight of evidence points in one direction: Minimum-wage hikes reduce employment opportunities.
Business owners must weigh trade offs when deciding whether or not to hire. An adult with acquired skills and previous work experience will usually not find it difficult to convince a potential employer that hiring him or her is worth a wage in the realm of $13.50 an hour; not so for teenagers. An entry-level worker, with no professional references or résumé, might be able to find work at $7.25 or even $9.47 an hour (Washington’s current minimum wage). But few employers would be willing to take a chance on an untested young person when they must pay him or her $13.50 an hour or higher.
Washington’s ballot initiative means fewer summer and part-time jobs for teenagers, which would thin out résumés and make it more difficult to start careers. But Washington can easily fix this...
Read the entire piece here in The Seattle Times, based on a new report
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Preston Cooper is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute's Economics21. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in Seattle Times