Minority Youth Unemployment Act: Article Analysis

The Minority Youth Unemployment Act: Michael Saltsman’s View of the Question of Raising the Minimum Wage Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, published his article “The Minority Youth Unemployment Act” on the Wall Street Journal’s website on February 19, 2013 in the hopes of persuading his audience, most likely those in positions to hire minimum wage workers (typically teenagers), against the idea of a higher minimum wage. He states that there is no need for a raise in the minimum wage because “about 40% of people that have a minimum wage job live with either a parent or relative and are not the primary bread winner. And that Mr. Obama didn’t tell the whole story about parents working minimum wage jobs

That is wrong.” He would be right, were it not for the fact the in homes that have someone working for minimum wage that person, typically, isn’t the one to “bring home the bacon”. In fact “the average family income for a home with a minimum-wage worker is about $47,023; the poverty line is $23,550.” The majority of the time someone working for minimum wage still lives with a parent or some other relative. There are the cases of two parents working for minimum wage to support their two children, but the state often has benefits that allow those parents to properly care for their children, including a typical $5,000 a year tax break, as well as federal benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. On top of all of that “67% of minimum-wage workers get a raise within their first year, according to the Employment Policies Institute.” If the majority of minimum-wage workers get a raise within their first year of minimum-wage work, they then make more than the minimum wage. If that is the case then Obama’s speech no longer has

This is not because of a raise in the minimum wage but rather the labor market has grown and more people are working. However, if the minimum wage were to be raised many places, particularly where there is a high unemployment rate, it would hurt everyone, but the minority youth in particular. An example of this is the time period between July 2007 and July 2009. The minimum wage was being increased from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour, and according to a chart provided by this article shows that at the last increase in July 2009 the unemployment rate for teens, especially blacks, jumped. For black teens it was almost to 40% and near there, 37.8%, up to January 2013. “A study done by William Even of Miami University and David Macpherson of Trinity University, both economists, concluded that in the 21 states where the full 40% wage increase occurred, “the consequences for young black adults were worse than the consequences of the recession that occurred in 2008.” This shows that an increase in the minimum wage will only hurt those that it is trying to help the most, young teenage workers, particularly those in the minority. Economists have determined that the demand for minimum wage will decrease dramatically if the minimum wage is increased to $9/hour, considering that the jobless rate for teenage workers was still at 23.4% when the minimum wage was still at