Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed

by Jason L. Riley

The reality is that as the minimum wage has risen, the gap between the overall jobless rate and the jobless rate of young people has widened. This holds true at the federal and state level. “At least 10 states have raised their minimum wages above the federal level in the last decade, largely in response to union lobbying,” reported the Wall Street Journal in 2009. “Four states with among the highest wage rates are California, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York. Studies have shown in each case that their wage policies killed jobs for teens.” This phenomenon extends beyond U.S. borders, by the way. A study of seventeen other countries found a “highly negative association between higher minimum wages and youth employment rates,” said the Journal. “It also concluded that having a starter wage, well below the minimum, counteracts much of this negative jobs impact.”