Summer is quickly approaching and finals are being taken in High Schools and Colleges across the country and along with most every parent, a lot of teenagers and young adults are looking forward to getting summer jobs. Problem is, thanks to a bunch of misguided and economically impaired politicians the phrase “Dude, where’s my summer job?” will be on the mouths of most this summer.
I wish I could take credit for the title: “Dude, where’s my summer job?” but that honor goes to Kristen Lopez Eastlick of the Examiner.com LA edition who’s piece today echo’s and exemplifies the reason why so many of us on the right (yours truly included) fought so hard against this wage hike, to no avail.
Touted as a victory by this Do-Nothing Democrat controlled congress they’re once again proven wrong by the law of unintended consequences. My quibble with citing this law is that these CongressCritters™ should have known better — we all did!
This year, it’s harder than ever for teens to find a summer job. Researchers at Northeastern University described summer 2007 as “the worst in post-World War II history” for teen summer employment, and those same researchers say that 2008 is poised to be “even worse.”
-Snip-
According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States’ minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount.
So it should be no surprise to see teen jobs disappearing or to hear bleak testimony from employers across the country that make these hiring decisions.
The amount of research and data by respected organizations showing that mandatory minimum wages and their arbitrary nature actually causes more job loss and does more harm to the intended beneficiary is staggering. Kristen sites some in her article:
There’s no end to the economic data that confirm these common-sense observations. Research from the University of Georgia, the University of Connecticut and Cornell University indicates that increasing the minimum wage causes four times more job loss for employees without a high school diploma than it does for the general population.
Furthermore, minimum wage hikes don’t effectively target the people who are typically portrayed as the key beneficiaries — low-income adults raising kids. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, just 14 percent of those who benefited from the most recent federal minimum wage hike are sole earners in families with children.
This summer, with our economy reeling from high energy prices and already up-ticking unemployment numbers coupled with last years mandatory minimum wage hike, the prospects for summer jobs by teens, young adults and minorities is slim to say the least. It’s a shame that those who are elected to congress to help fix problems are so singularly focused on gaining power and passing symbolic legislation that does more harm than good… glossed over the facts and consequences in order to score some cheep points.
I suppose their answer would be just wait until the day we can tell those kids…. Hey, no worries — stay home this summer and veg the federal government has so heavily taxed hard working Americans that all of your expenses (living, medical, social) are covered by our new nanny state!!!
We’re closer to that now than we’ve ever been… think about it!
must do something and screwing up the economy seems the the perfect thing to do!
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion