EDITORIAL: Reduced minimum wage for teens would bolster job prospects

Presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle want to lift the lower and middle classes. But to join the middle class, you must have a good job. And an elevated minimum wage prices the unskilled out of the job market, delaying or denying young people an entrance to the workforce.

In advance of February's Nevada presidential caucuses, the Review-Journal is publishing a 10-editorial series on policies and government reforms all candidates should be able to get behind. The fourth policy goal we'd like all presidential candidates to champion: a reduced minimum wage for juveniles.

President Barack Obama pushed the idea of a higher minimum wage during his State of the Union Address in January, and both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have echoed his sentiments on the campaign trail. They say a higher minimum wage would give the poor a hand up. But like so many ideas in Washington, a higher minimum wage would harm many of those it was meant to help. And no group would be more adversely affected by a higher minimum wage than teens.

While the nation debates the merits of a so-called "living wage" for working adults, a modest juvenile minimum wage of around $5 per hour is long overdue.

A first job does more than put money in a teen's pocket. It provides opportunities to learn work and life skills. Research shows that teenage employment leads to better employment and higher earnings later in life. Delayed entry into the workforce, however, greatly decreases lifetime earnings.

The higher the minimum wage goes, however, the more teenagers are denied jobs. According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment rates among all teens declined by double digits between 2000 and 2011, from 44 percent to 24 percent. The numbers are particularly distressing for black and Hispanic teens. The unemployment rate is 31.8 percent for African-American teens and 20.8 percent for Hispanics. (The unemployment for white teens is 15.7 percent.)

A lack of work experience during the teen years can also lead to a rise in crime.

According to a University of Pennsylvania study, teenagers who were employed were 43 percent less likely to be arrested in connection with a violent crime than their unemployed counterparts. Criminals were lacking in "self-control, social information processing and decision-making" — all skills that can be learned and developed in the workplace.

Democrats say they are committed to lifting the middle class, attacking income inequality and helping minorities. But a generation of young minorities is at risk of never reaching the middle class, because teens can't get the first job necessary to learn work skills. A juvenile minimum wage would create entry-level jobs, discourage employer automation and put millions of teens on a path to a better life.