Actually, raising the minimum wage can hurt the very people it is intended to help. A company that could hire five people under the old wage might only be able to afford to keep four under the new rate.

Plus, the majority of minimum-wage jobs are held by high school and college students, most of whom are still receiving support from their parents, and most of whom will soon move on to better jobs. Even adults in minimum-wage jobs generally move on to bigger and better things in a few months. It's a stepping stone, and we must be careful not to raise that first step too high.

Getting back to the minimum wage, this year's summertime teen employment is heading toward a 60-year low, with poor and minority teens especially hard hit. Why? Increases in the minimum wage have made teen workers more expensive, so companies are hiring fewer of them:

According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States’ minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount.

Dismal science, this economics...