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Comment by unpolloloco | Hacker News Reader

You want those jobs, but you don't want people to make careers out of those jobs. Someone in high school should be working those jobs, someone supporting a family or trying to build a career shouldn't be! Not sure how to solve this issue though... Age-based minimum wage? Something else?

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Isn't this basically discrimination? Job is job. Even if you are 13 years old your should be paid the same for similar results. Instead of subsiding via parents. This make it better for those unlucky youth to help themselves.

Wait, parents shouldn’t subsidize their kids?! As soon as my kid can get a part-time job as a teenager I should totally cut them off? That does sound tempting...

The ones being subsidized are the kids' employers, not the kids.

I’m pretty sure I’m feeding and clothing my kids. I mean, I get what you are trying to say, but the fact is, everybody has a different price they are willing to work for based on their circumstances. Sweeping nationwide minimum wage laws are not the best solution for that.

Everybody has a different price they are willing to work for based on their circumstances but that doesn't mean you let them do that. Allowing people to work for low wages drives down wages for others, which is undesirable for lots of reasons including income inequality and not wanting people with families to become poor. Sweeping nationwide minimum wage laws is certainly one solution for that.

Yes, something else. A reasonable education system, a reasonable regulatory framework that let's business success (we have both of these things), and repairing the hole in the bucket that is causing wages at the bottom to be stagnant - illegal immigration. But the majority of power on both sides of 'the aisle' don't want to tackle this for selfish reasons.

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