This letter expresses a hope to get people thinking about youth employment, as well as employment for those without developed skills. We have now mounted the pinnacle: Washington state has given workers the highest minimum wage in the United States. Soon Oregon will join us at this highest level.
There is no desire among employers to hire poorly skilled or starting workers at these levels. We are entering a path which will lead to a new Appalachia, an area peopled by struggling poor with no employment at all. This is the transcendent foolishness of minimum wage: it will lead to no jobs at all. Of course, people might move here after gaining skills elsewhere, but the youth here will have no chance at good jobs.
I think minimum wage correction, along with a rollback of current laws restricting youths from gaining farm labor at a younger age (I would suggest 14 years), would go a long way to helping our newest workers.
Thomas Albertson
Edmonds
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