Is it fair to pay teens less than adults?

• Position: Debate

Young people face the highest unemployment rate of all age groups in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 15 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds who are actively looking for work can't find jobs. Some lawmakers believe they have a fix: lowering the minimum wage for teens, to encourage businesses to hire them. In Washington state, lawmakers are debating a bill that would lower the minimum wage for anyone under 20 to $8.05 an hour, compared with $9.47 an hour for adults. A similar measure is in effect in Michigan, and another is being considered in South Dakota.

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YES

You need experience to get hired, but unless you get hired, you can't get experience.

Many young people across the country face this dilemma. A lower minimum wage for teens would encourage businesses to hire them. That would give teens more opportunities to gain work experience and learn valuable life and career skills, such as the importance of showing up to work on time and how to be professional and reliable.

Federal law limits what teens can do while on the job. At grocery stores, for example, teens under 18 can bag goods, but they aren't allowed to operate a cardboard-box compactor. When young people can't do parts of the job, employers have to hire someone else to do those tasks. If there are going to be legal restrictions on what teens can do, then it makes sense that their pay is lower as well.

Plus, your average teen doesn't have the same kinds of skills that workers in, say, their 20s have. When employers have to pay everyone the same starting wage, it often makes more sense for them to hire older, more-skilled workers instead of teens.

But a high youth unemployment rate is bad for society. Research shows that unemployed teens are more likely to drop out of high school and become involved with the criminal justice system. Studies have also found that students with part-time jobs are more likely to earn higher wages in the future compared with their classmates who don't work.

The bottom line is that lowering the minimum wage for teens makes it easier for them to find jobs. And putting all Americans back to work will ultimately help improve our nation's economy.

--BOB BATTLES

General Counsel & Government Affairs Director Association of Washington Business

NO

Why should a worker get paid less simply because he or she happens to be a teenager? If they're...