Killing the American dream... and taking our kids with it

Like many small business owners, I am in too much of a rush to get to the office to do more than glance at the headlines before I leave for work. This evening, when I got to take a more careful look at the paper, I was able to read a timely and important commentary from Steve Chapman, a member of the editorial board at the Chicago Tribune.
On Friday, July 24th, the minimum wage was raised from $6.55 to $7.25. According to Chapman, Professor David Newmark at the University of California at Irvine estimates that the raise will eliminate 300,000 jobs among teens and young adults. Many businesses will have to trim back their work force even more. Here is an excerpt from Chapman’s commentary:

Come Friday, the federally mandated minimum wage will jump to $7.25 an hour from $6.55 -- an 11 percent increase. At a time when employers are laying off workers, Washington is going to make it more expensive to keep them.
If you're a minimum wage employee, your job will pay more, but only if it still exists. These days, most companies are scrutinizing every position on the payroll to make sure it's worth the cost. Raise the toll, and some employees will find they are no longer valuable enough to make the cut.
Economists generally agree that increases in the minimum wage cause unemployment even when the economy is prospering -- something it has not been doing for the last year and a half. David Neumark, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, estimates this rise will destroy some 300,000 jobs among teens and young adults.

The government’s war on small businesses continues. In today’s economic environment, a small business owner has a tough enough time keeping his doors open to begin with. When you cannot afford to pay someone, that person loses their job. And now, the government wants to take away that first part time job that a young person could have. In a state the size of South Carolina, we are looking at the possibility of 6,000 young people on the streets, instead of earning money and having the chance of learning what is expected of an employee. The government is gutting the backbone of America-the small business owner.
(Click here if you'd like to read Chapman's editorial in its entirety.)