Dear Next President,

The minimum wage is a complex issue, which is why you, Mr. or Ms. President, need to take it seriously. There are many reasons why the minimum wage should and should not be increased; however, the reasons why minimum wage should not be increased heavily outweigh the reasons why it should, including job opportunities for citizens under 18. 

If the minimum wage were to be increased even to $10.10 per hour, job opportunities for teenagers would drastically decrease. For example, the minimum wage in California is $9.00 an hour while the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25 an hour. Residents of Wisconsin can start working at 14 while residents of California cannot start working until 18. This higher minimum wage in California and many other states limits the opportunities for low-income teenagers to make money towards their college tuition. A higher minimum wage would also cause many small businesses and big businesses to take drastic measures in order to decrease their workforce. In California, McDonald’s is replacing human order-takers with computerized ones, in which customers can use kiosks to take their orders on. This may seem like a good thing, but it limits job opportunities for teenagers, but also for immigrants and low-income citizens without college degrees who depend on these low-paying jobs to get by. If the minimum wage were to be raised, these workers would most likely get laid off or businesses would simply fail because of the increased amount of money required to pay their workers.

If the United States were to raise their minimum wage, it would be a disaster. Employees would get laid off, job opportunities for teenagers would decrease, and prices on menus in your favorite fast food restaurants and clothing stores would go up, causing inflation to rise. Even though this idea looks good on paper, it would be a disaster if the United States were to make this happen.