Job market tough on teens

Noting recent headlines touting the fact that summer jobs were very scarce for teenagers it was tempting to go out and see if anyone had any idea of what the real problem is. The people writing the articles gave no clue. While in Dennys restaurant here in New Smyrna Beach the other day, I asked Catherine O’Brian about the job market for teenagers.
She said it is "tough and business is slow.” When asked about how to fix the problem she responded, “We need to get more money into the economy.

The 18-year-old added, “If you just have a high school diploma you can’t get anyplace.” Her friend, Taylor Payne, who was listening to the conversation, agreed.

While there is some truth to her statements that a better economy would improve teenage job prospects, the bigger truth is that it is the minimum wage laws are the primary cause of teenage unemployment.

Without minimum wage laws, wages could move down so that more jobs could be offered and fewer people would want them. Eventually wages would reach an equilibrium point where every one who wanted a job at that wage could have one.

That is the wonder of supply and demand. Each product or service reaches an equilibrium price where people are willing to buy all that producers are willing to provide. Minimum wage laws prevent the cost of unskilled labor from reaching an equilibrium point where the number of jobs equals the number of people who want them.

Why do we have these laws?

The quick answer is that the people who are victimized by these laws do not have much political clout or understanding of the situation. Meanwhile, powerful labor unions have a vested interest in keeping unskilled labor from offering their services at market prices to compete with union labor.

The problem is increased by the fact that most of the victims of these laws may actually think the laws are for their benefit. Ask around and see just how many people are aware of the real effects of minimum wage legislation..

These laws cut the bottom rungs off of the ladder to success. These laws keep young people from getting the most valuable training they can get. That is on the job training.

These same laws deny youngsters the opportunity of learning basic lessons such as being dependable, having the right attitude and treating bosses, fellow workers and customers with the proper respect. These lessons are best and most easily learned when the worker is young.

We are now plagued with older workers in the workforce who don’t understand the value of being dependable or proper attitude.

These laws fall especially hard on poor minorities. In fact, Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman calls the minimum wage laws the most anti-black laws on the books.

Some politicians even brag about their achievements in raising the minimum wage. They are either ignorant themselves as to the actual effect of this law or they assume that their listeners are.

As long as the population remains ignorant of the laws of supply and demand politicians will continue to get away with violating the laws of economics and then pointing their fingers at someone else to blame for the results.