Jonathon S.

$1,000 Resolve to Evolve Scholarship Winner - Senior

While an increased minimum wage may sound beneficial to well-intentioned individuals with little understanding of economic matters, in reality, a minimum wage hike will hurt business drastically, especially for younger, less experienced workers. An arbitrarily raised minimum wage does nothing to support new workers; it services established workers by increasing their standard of living. For example, in Idaho the minimum wage currently rests at $7.25 per hour; the proposed $15 wage more than doubles that amount. In practical terms, that means that if any locally run company or business operates with the same manpower, it will double its costs. Some businesses simply cannot manage that kind of stress upon their system; in places where local revenue is not enough to support a doubled cost, employers will be forced to find ways to cut costs, and the easiest way to do is to simply cut staff.

This alone promises problematic changes to an economy still struggling to create economic growth; yet for young people, the prospects are especially troubling. When employers are forced to lay off workers, almost invariably they choose to lay off those with the least experience, since it's common sense to know that a man who has done a job for many years is more likely to be more reliable than a green worker with no experience. Green workers are gambles, and employers don't like gambles; too much depends upon their ability to succeed. Therefore, in the long term, job prospects for young people would become far scarcer than they already are.

The most important commodity in business would quickly become experience, yet because of this few people could gain experience, and the workforce would pay the consequences, in some cases literally. For those who could succeed in this new system, the amount of money suddenly rushing in would increase the standard of living drastically; people who once made around twenty thousand dollars in a year could now make up to forty. Everyone who didn't land a job would find himself stuck in virtual squalor and have no real reason to hope for change. Finally, the proposed minimum wage solution would impact smaller businesses far more than the current solution.

As illustrated above, many companies will be forced to lay off workers rather than pay increased wages. Large, nationwide or blue-chip corporations like McDonald's and Walmart may be able to support this change; small, family-run businesses with single locations often cannot. The result would be a major shift in power towards corporate providers, and history has shown us that when a few corporations hold power and have the ability to consolidate and build trusts, the consumer suffers as a result. This measure would oppose job growth, employment growth, and national economic growth. While as a student struggling to pay for an ever more expensive college education, I will admit that a fifteen dollar an hour pay rate sounds appealing to me. But as an American, as an individual who cares for the health and growth of his country, I know better. I cannot support the move for a $15 minimum wage for the health of this nation and for the good of its people.

In my searches and consideration of college, the biggest problem, one that looms in the back of my mind, is the question of payment and finance. It's an easy thing to fear; with the cost of college increased tens of thousands of dollars from its cost when my parents and grandparents got their degrees and news stories every other day warning us that Americans struggle under over a trillion dollars of college debt, one can hardly help but take a bleak outlook on the subject. Now I have taken effort to make payment only a secondary concern; I know that if I really put the work forward into scholarships and other work opportunities I can ultimately pay for college without the binding debt that we call student loans. In addition, I know that a college education and the skills that it will give me are ultimately worth the effort. I have the ability to do good things in the world, and a college education will give me the necessary tools to do those things. So while I am of course concerned about money, I cannot let that stand in the way of my advancement as a member of the workforce, a U.S. citizen and a person.