Minimum Wage Not to Blame for Teen Unemployment

By Anne Thompson

Created 07/01/2011 - 4:21pm

In his latest attack [1] on the minimum wage, Casey Mulligan charges that the 2007-2009 minimum wage increases are adding to teen unemployment. He writes that “Many teenagers cannot find work this summer, [2] victims of a weak economy and a situation made worse by minimum-wage laws.”

Mulligan is correct to note that teens have been hit hard by the recession—as the youngest, least experienced members of the workforce, they are among the last to be rehired in economic recoveries. Due to the dramatic disappearance of jobs during the Great Recession, many older workers are taking jobs previously filled by teens: half of college graduates are now filling jobs that don’t require a college degree. Since the end of World War II, the teen unemployment rate has ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 the overall employment rate, and with overall unemployment at 9.1 percent, May’s teen unemployment rate of 24.2 falls within that historic range.