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Minimum wage impact on teen jobs focus of study

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By Halie Anderson, Contributing Writer Updated 9:41 PM Sunday, September 5, 2010

OXFORD — Over the past few years, teens have found it increasingly difficult to find employment.

Bill Even, Miami Economics professor and labor economist, and David Macpherson, of Trinity University in Texas and former Miami faculty member, attribute this to the rise in minimum wage.

Even and Macpherson conducted research on the minimum wage hike and its affect on teen unemployment in the United States.

According to the research, the minimum wage in the state of Ohio was at $5.15 from 1997 to 2006. It then rose to $6.85 in January 2007 and has since risen to $7.30.

The Ohio state minimum wage no longer matches that of the Federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25.

Between 2007 and 2009, the hikes in minimum wage reduced employment for teens aged 16 to 19 by 12.4 percent, which translates to about 98,000 fewer teens in the work force.

Even said most of the research was conducted from a current monthly survey completed by over 50,000 households.

Although some argue that the minimum wage should be higher to reduce poverty, Macpherson said they are not taking into consideration that most minimum wage earners aren’t poor.

Even suggests the government allow for a training wage for the first several months of employment.

Although Even recommends lowering the minimum wage, he said he does not think the minimum wages should be different for teens and adults.

“This is not a good idea in general,” Even said. “It would prevent some adult workers from getting jobs. Also, adults living off minimum wage to provide for their family are typically on welfare or have an earned income tax credit to provide assistance.”

Katherine Stoss of the Miami University Human Resource Department has not seen the affects of the minimum wage hikes that Even and Macpherson’s research argues in the amount of minimum wage-paid workers that the department hires.

“We have not noticed a dip in student employment. The Ohio minimum wage is currently $7.30 an hour and the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Since the Ohio minimum wage is higher, the change to the federal minimum wage last July did not impact us.”

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