The unemployment rate for teens aged 16-19 is over 25% whereas the unemployment rate for U.S. as a whole is 9.1% according to the United States Department of Labor.
In an increasingly competitive job market, teens and young adults are finding it harder and harder to get a job.
Picture yourself as an employer. If you are going to hire one person, who is it going to be? The college graduate who has had previous job experience, or the sophomore in highschool looking for his first job?
In almost all cases, you would pick the college graduate right?
If the national minimum wage was changed, so that the minimum wage for minors was, say, $5.25 (its $7.25 now) then suddenly the minor has a chance to be hired because he can be payed less making it easier to get hired as a minor.