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EDITORIAL
Nevada's minimum wage a problem
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The economic downturn has hammered Nevada teenagers' job prospects. The state's voters and elected officials have made matters worse.
As the Review-Journal's Jennifer Robison reported Sunday, Nevada's nation-leading 12.1 percent unemployment includes a 34.5 percent jobless rate for 16- to 19-year-olds. That figure is the country's second highest, tied with Washington state behind Georgia's 36.8 percent.
Teen unemployment has always been higher than overall joblessness, but the current hiring climate is especially brutal for young men and women seeking their first work experience. Retail, restaurant and other service-industry jobs that once were tailor-made for teens now go to grown-ups.
But it's Nevada's elevated minimum wage that has effectively priced unproven teens out of the job market. In 2006, state voters approved a constitutional amendment mandating that Nevada's minimum wage be $1 per hour higher than the federal standard for workers who do not have employer-sponsored health insurance.
As a result, Nevada's minimum wage has exploded 60 percent in a little more than four years, from $5.15 to $8.25 per hour, an increase that dwarfs overall wage growth over that time. Those mandated pay raises have given businesses annual incentives to replace workers with technology and pile more duties on higher-salaried employees.
The minimum wage started to climb just before the onset of the Great Recession. Nevada employers hired 35,200 teens in the second quarter of 2006. In the second quarter of 2010, Nevada companies hired just 12,500 teens.
This lack of opportunity hurts many teens for the rest of their working lives. By delaying their first job experiences -- where teens prove they can show up on time, take direction from a supervisor and interact with customers -- workers potentially retard their future earning potential.
State Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, this year proposed repealing the state's minimum wage standard. The Democrat-controlled Legislature made sure the bill went nowhere.
A different solution lawmakers could take up in 2013: a new "training" wage standard for workers younger than 20 that's well below the current minimum wage. Arizona, Maine, Missouri, Illinois and Michigan have much lower minimum wages for teens.
This is a good idea. But who's going to go to Carson City two years from now and lobby for unemployed teens, who have no resources and might be too young to vote?
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Does anyone have a job in Georgia? Maybe they have high unemployment as a result of never fully recovering from tyrant Abe Lincoln's Reconstruction? I don't know, I don't live in GA.
I know someone whose labor is worth maybe $1/h. Really. He has mental/physical challenges but is otherwise functional. The MW has priced him out of the market for that all-important first job. That means he'll never develop the work/people skills necessary to qualify for that second job at $1.25, and on and on.
You MW supporters are willing to condemn that fellow to a LIFETIME of unemployment just so you can feel morally superior.
Minimum wage is not at fault here folks. You can't compare 2006 job opportunities with 2010 and say minimum wage caused it. There is a general lack of opportunity because businesses are afraid to expand due to not knowing what kind of crazy new socialist law is coming next.
like many friends, i have an immense list of chores. most could be done by near zero skilled teenagers. the issue isn't some 5-10$ an hour wage. more important than minimum wage are the liability issues involved with hiring casual workers. i don't hire the illegals lurking around the garden & home improvement centers. and it's foolish to expose ones lifetime assets to a frivolous lawsuit for an injury, real or fabricated.
For all those free market lovers who believe a better tomorrow means less gov't interference dictating labor laws, I've got music for your ears. The June27th issue of Newsweek chronicles just how low U.S. workers will go to secure a job. Americans are willing to accept 25 cents an hour while counterparts in nations like India and the Phillippines expect more an hour. For all you business owners willing to exploit, this news should come as utopia!!!!
In my opinion government rules!!!!!
Franklin..who do propose that the repubs run that will beat Obama? Newt,,Pahlin..Bachman..Pewently? Romney or Huntsman all of them together couldn't beat him so good luck. The main problem with the repubs is the tea party its to far to the wrong to get the repubs elected..it is so out of touch with americans that the repubs won't even appeal to mainstream repubs.....how secure would you feel about any of them having a finger on the button asuming they have enough smarts to find it.
Here are some facts: Georgia has a worst in the nation teen unemployment rate of 36.8% but it's minimum wage rate is the lowest in the nation at $5.15 an hour with tons of loopholes to escape even that pathetic rate. The argument that low minimum wage rates are better for teens sure doesn't seem to bear out in GA. There is more to the reason for high teen unemployment than just the minimum rate. The overall local economy is a bigger factor. Thankfully for those current wage slaves in GA the federal wage of $7.25 overrules the state rate in most cases. And that is still $1/hr less than NV but their teen unemployment is still worse. What's your next excuse?
Ok, so lets lower the min. Wage by $1.00, then all business's must lower there prices by 65% on all products they sell. They must hire 7-1 7 teens per 1 adult over 18. All cell phones must be left off during work ours, all bonus's must be paid evenly across the board for employees from the lowest to the highest. CEOs and owners are allowed a 10% of profit before bonus's are paid. No more luxry contracts or stock offers nadda nothing even playing field.
Ben Bernanke told reporters, ” We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting.” Well, let's see you lame brained numb skull. It's because SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE FEEL GOOD ECONOMY STIFLING POLICIES HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER WORK!!!!! Take your Maoist/Stalinist doctrine, put them back where the sun don't shine and take your community organizing partisan hack liberal and soon to be remembered as the worst president in U.S. history with you. Does that help give you a precise read moron?
David... I beleive you would hid Anne Franks family in your attic>>>>just not sure you would feed them!?