Expect Higher Unemployment for Black Youth in New York

Legislators want to raise the minimum wage again in New York state. They want to increase it by $1.25, to $8.50, and also index it to inflation.

A totally clueless state legislator, who doesn't understand the supply and demand economics of wages thinks it will be wonderful.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said raising the minimum wage is “a top priority” of this state Legislature session, reports NyPo. A spokeswoman for the speaker said he is “optimistic” that the minimum-wage measure will pass this year.

Kerri Biche, a spokeswoman for Silver, says the businesspeople who are against the hike in the minimum are overlooking "the good points" of raising the minimum wage.

“The benefits of higher minimum wages will go to people who are living on the margins, people who are having trouble paying their rent and paying for food,” Biche says. She added that businesses can also benefit.

“These people getting the higher wage will be spending more money in their communities. They will be able to buy more from these businesses,” Biche says.

Biche is, of course, assuming that the state can just increase the minimum wage without the consequences of layoffs because of the higher wage.

Here's the real problem (via NyPo)

“You’re talking about a 17 percent to 18 percent increase in the wage of your minimum worker who isn’t even trained,” says Pat Orzano, who owns a 7-Eleven store in Massapequa...

Orzano says that raising the state minimum wage by 17 percent, given the recent economic conditions, would be a hardship for the average small business.

“None of us have had 17 percent increases in our sales. Retail sales have been flat. Our taxes are going up. They are astronomical,” she says.

The result, she predicts, would be a reduction in jobs; she said that she would have to cut worker hours for the third year in a row...

“I find that when minimum wages go up, it becomes cost-effective to find other ways to pay for work,” says Clarence Price, the owner of a Binghamton Roto-Rooter business with six employees. “As an example, a few years ago, when the minimum wage went up, I had to stop using high school students to clean up.”

It became more cost-effective, he says, to replace the marginal workers with equipment because “it doesn’t require Social Security.”

“As a result,” Price says, “two kids lost their jobs, which I feel bad about.”

Black youth, brought up in incompetent public schools, are the least skilled and will suffer the most from further hikes in the minimum wage. They will never get that first job. It's government central planning gone wild. And the result will be more bands of roaming youth looking for trouble on the streets of NYC.