Bridger PenningtonFund Launch & Investment Expert

Minimum Wage Causes Problems | Bridger Pennington

15 Dec 2023 · 1 min

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Three speakers debate minimum wage policy and its effects on entry-level jobs. They argue that raising the minimum wage eliminates starter positions for teenagers, pushes businesses toward automation, and removes the bottom rungs of the employment ladder where workers gain experience.

What minimum wage does, you think about a ladder, it takes away the bottom rungs on the ladder. If you're 15 years old and you want to get a job and you're going to go to the local pizza joint.
You know what? I've looked around, I've shopped around. $4 an hour works for me. I want to get some experience. I want to work for you guys for $4 an hour and hopefully next year I can work up and make $6 an hour and then $8 an hour, then $15.
The business owner says, sorry, the government says I have to pay you $15 an hour and you're not worth that and so I can't hire you.
And that 15-year-old kid can't get a job and if the business owner hires, kids for $15 an hour, that business will go out of business in a few years or months because it's an inefficient use of capital. They're going to look for ways to get robots or automate or do something different, which we've seen with DoorDash and these other ways to not have employees. Companies around the world, I talk to a lot of them, are trying to figure out how do I have less employees. It's because you keep taking away the bottom rungs on the ladder and it doesn't allow employees to start