In your Saturday editorial, “Summer jobs becoming thing of past,” you cite minimum wage laws as a reason that “last summer was the weakest summer for teen hiring.” What the editorial doesn’t mention is that many employers would prefer to hire teenagers at less than minimum wage. Doing so would allow them to replace workers who depend on those jobs year-round and increase profits in the process.
The larger issue isn’t minimum wage; it’s economics. Businesses are not charities. As the line from “The Godfather” goes, “It’s not personal, it’s business.” If employers can reduce costs by replacing workers with automation or artificial intelligence, many already have. If they can find a way to pay less for labor, they will pursue that as well.
The goal is not to create opportunities for teenagers. The goal is to lower labor costs.
