Teenagers these days don't work like they used to. But letting employers pay them less than adults for the same entry-level positions — making teens cheaper to hire and less costly to retain — is no way to boost teenage employment, according to voters in the Mount Rushmore state.
More than 70 percent of voters in South Dakota rejected a state ballot measure Tuesday to lower the minimum wage for workers under 18 from $8.55 to $7.50 an hour. Federal law already allows employers to pay workers under the age of 20 a minimum of $4.25 an hour during their first 90 days on the job, although individual states may set a higher threshold.
Supporters argued that a lower, so-called training wage for minors would help employers preserve entry-level opportunities for teens, who they say suffer disproportionately amid rising labor costs due to their lack of experience. A sub-minimum wage would help give them a fair shot, according to Michael Saltsman, research director at the business-backed Employment Policies Institute.
"There's a crisis in youth workforce participation," he said by e-mail before Tuesday's results. "What concerns me are the teens who want to work and can't find it — those teens who are facing more competition for fewer jobs as a consequence of higher labor costs."
