OPINION: Obama raising the minimum wage, not exactly positive

President Obama announced on Tuesday that he will be raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. This may be good for the workers who are secure in their jobs, but many problems arise for teenagers. When it becomes costlier for companies to employ people, the demand for workers is lowered, thus killing jobs. Fewer jobs mean that businesses are going to be less willing to hire new workers, specifically teens who don’t have prior work experience.

A first job is vital for a teenager to make the slow transition into adulthood by becoming more independent and easing their way into making contributions to society, rather than relying simply on their parents. If teens don’t get jobs until graduation, they have far less experience and assimilation time, so they are suddenly pushed into the real world completely clueless.

Even if certain teens do obtain jobs, they are probably going to be the ones with better grades, more service hours, athletic experience, and more extra-curricular activities under their belts. Yet the students who seek jobs in high school usually are the ones who have to pay for their own college, and generally would have less money to be involved in sports or other costly clubs. So when high schoolers can’t get that job they want, even if it doesn’t pay well, they end up more in debt in the long run. Some may not be able to go to college at all without the extra salary they could be earning for themselves.

Another problem with raising minimum wage is that companies will have to raise the prices of their goods, like food and clothing, to help pay their employees. This makes it more difficult for the people who are on payroll in the first place. They may be “making” more money, but the cost of everything will go up. So in the end, an individual’s salary may be more, yet the prices of everything go up, so people won’t be making more money.

The problems don’t end there. With a minimum wage so high for the less experienced workers, the people who have been working at a certain place for longer or have a better education may have a lower salary than those who receive the “new and improved” minimum wage. So not only do the less experienced workers get a pay raise, but also the rest of the employees. The cost for the companies will keep going up and up until they are forced to lay off more people or stop hiring.

I predict that the economic issues will continue to arise from this new minimum wage and will continue to wrack the country as insane inflation ensues. So once again we decide to help the “lower working class” at the expense of everyone else.