AZ minimum wage blamed for lack of jobs for teens

Teens had a tough time getting jobs this summer, and one group blames the state's minimum wage hike.

The Employment Policies Institute is launching an ad campaign in Arizona and a handful of other states, claiming that policies like increasing the minimum wage have consequences, such as a teen unemployment rate of 17 percent for the first half of 2008.

``In 2006, Arizona voters passed a measure that has raised the minimum wage by 34 percent. Since then, the teen unemployment rate in Arizona has shot up over 28 percent," the ad says in part.

Tim Miller of the Employment Policies Institute said the ad campaign stems from ``the worst summer for teen employment since 2002."

``This is the way to educate people about the fact that there are unintended consequences that come along with policies," Miller said.

Rebecca Friend with the AFL-CIO, a strong supporter of the minimum wage hike, said Miller is putting blame in the wrong place.

``This economy is bad, unemployment just went up to the highest it's been in the last five years, that's why people can't get jobs," Friend said. ``A bad economy is what's keeping companies from hiring."

Miller said that part of the reason the economy's bad is because young people can't get jobs to earn spending money.