I hate being part of the fray. I think the minimum wage is a really bad idea, but I think pieces like this do a disservice to honest argumentation.
What I see there is that youth unemployment is twice as high as overall unemployment regardless of whether there is a minimum wage. Am I missing something?
I think that it still looks pretty good. My opinion now, not their’s: It’s not just a relative issue; 12% is a lot better than 25%. Youth unemployment is always going to be relatively high, and it may be hard to bring it under 10%, so perhaps things are as good as they can be in the non-MW countries.
Also, how interesting that the non-MW countries are all the nordics, the honorary-nordic, and Austria. These are the countries people hold up highest as successes…
Two things stand out in that (admittedly small) dataset:
1. Youth unemployment is approx. twice as high as overall unemployment, regardless of the presence or level of a government mandated minimum wage.
2. Both youth unemployment and overall unemployment are approx. twice as high in countries with a high government mandated minimum wage compared to those with none.
This suggests that minimum wage laws do not necessarily have a much greater impact on youth employment than on employment more generally. This is not necessarily what one would expect given that “youth” workers are far more likely to by inexperienced and low-skilled relative to workers in general. I must admit I’m at a bit of a loss for an explanation on this one.