Amity Shlaes, Columnist

Blame Minimum Wage for Youth Joblessness: Echoes

June 27, 2011 at 2:20 PM UTC

Amity Shlaes, chairman of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, is the author of "Great Society" and co-editor, with Matthew Denhart, of a new edition of Coolidge's autobiography.

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Margins matter. That’s what New Hampshire lawmakers were really saying to their governor, John Lynch, last week when they overrode his veto of legislation that limited increases in the minimum wage.

The law ties the New Hampshire minimum wage to the federal wage of $7.25 an hour. The effect is to guarantee New Hampshire employers an advantage of somewhere between $0.15 and $1.00 an hour over employers in other New England states, where minimum wages range from $7.40 an hour in Rhode Island to $8.25 an hour in Connecticut.