I’m an employer, and I know how to fix this.
Eliminate minimum wage laws.
All of them.
Allow employers to employ people who are perfectly willing to exchange a low entry-level wage for training that we will be willing to provide. Training that will take the value of said employee’s labor upward in a short period of time.
Oh, and it would get our kids off the couch, and into the workforce, not to mention provide cheaper products for consumers.
Here’s what we will teach them at a minimum: how to get up early in the morning. How to get up early in the morning and show up. How to show up, on time. How to show up, on time, dressed properly to work. How to show up on time, and become part of a team. How to show up on time, become part of a team that works toward goals. How to show up on time, work toward goals, and achieve them. They’ll learn a skill. They’ll learn while their labor value rises along with their wage.
Want welfare-to-work to work? Eliminate minimum wage laws. We’ll train them. Willingly.
“How to show up, on time. How to show up, on time. How to show up, on time.”
As a kid I was raised to leave home for appointments and work extra early to allow for that flat tire or other delay and maintained that ethic to this day.
When I recently worked in western ND where the oil boom is happening, it was rumored a trucking company was paying a $500 per month bonus to those that show up on time. Considering the $500 was but a small fraction of their wages and the work ethic of todays young adults, I believed it.
Your plan sounds like what I experienced after joining the Navy in 1978. I learned quickly how to get up early, etc. The Navy sent me to school, where I learned electronics, and gave me the experience (20 years worth) that has carried me through all the changes in my career.
Minimum wage laws were implemented by unions to support wages for unions.
Actually, high schools help keep kids from being available to compete with union labor - another union plan.
Just some more benefits that unions have provided to "We the People."