While everyone was ringing in the new year in Washington State, minimum wage went up 50 cents on the first of January. In 2016, Washington residents voted to pass Initiative 1433 which required minimum wage to be raised a certain amount every year until 2020. Now it is set at 12 dollars per hour. This will give teenagers a drive to go out and get a job but will also make companies more skeptical on giving teenagers jobs because if they are going to be paying money for the employees, they will want to make sure they have the right person for the job.

According to Governing Magazine, only 0.8 percent of workers in the State of Washington work on minimum wage as of 2017. With the rise of the minimum wage, that number will likely rise because businesses usually do not want to pay teenagers a lot of money in jobs that they are just starting out in. For 16 year old’s, it is pretty hard to find a job especially in a small town like Camas where there are more small businesses than corporations.

Students nowadays like to have money but most of them will feed off of their parents instead of getting jobs. 16 percent of teens in high school in the United States have minimum wage jobs as of 2017 according to the Washington Times. “I like my job right now and support the rise of the minimum wage,” said Senior Matt Williams.

While it may seem great for teenagers to be able to make more money while working, the pay raise will cause businesses to go through a more selective process with who they hire to work or them. The minimum wage will go up once again in January 2020 one dollar and fifty cents to $13.50.