BY LAURA HARPER
Staff Writer

Throughout the summer and after school, many students hold part-time jobs in order to save for college and buy things they may want without having to ask their parents for money. Though high school jobs may not pay that much, the minimum wage rate should stay the same.

While $7.25 per hour may not seem much compared to the monumental cost of college tuition, as well as the costs of other basic necessities, the limits of the minimum wage exist for a reason. One reason is that when the minimum wage goes up, the cost of services by minimum wage workers, such as fast food and retail, go up as well.

This could be detrimental to small-business owners, who can only afford to pay their employees minimum wage. If they have to pay their workers more, these owners may be forced to close their businesses.

In addition, raising the minimum wage would result in increased job loss. With businesses not being able to afford hiring new employees, such jobs would become more difficult to secure and less common.

Raising the minimum wage would also have little to no effect on reducing poverty. According to a recent study, minimum wage increases from 2013 and 2014 resulted in no change in the number of workers living in poverty, with only 15 percent of those affected by the raises coming from poor households.

While minimum wage jobs may be the primary source of income for many high school students, these positions are not meant to sustain families or provide financial support for an extended period of time. Therefore, when considering inflation and the effects on job security, the minimum wage rate should stay the same.