Presidential candidate Ben Carson spoke out against raising the minimum wage from the outset of Tuesday's GOP debate, specifically arguing that doing so will harm those in the black community.
The former neurosurgeon said that nearly 20 percent of black teenagers have a job, adding that the number will only decrease if the minimum wage increases to $15 an hour, which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just enacted in his state.
"People need to be educated on the minimum wage," Carson said. "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases. This is particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job. They're looking for one, and that's because of those high wages. If you lower those wages, it comes down.
"I can remember as a youngster my first job working in a laboratory as a lab assistant, and multiple other jobs. But I would not have gotten those jobs if someone had to pay me a large amount of money," Carson said. "But what I did gain from those jobs is a tremendous amount of experience and how to operate in the world and how to relate with other people, and how to become a responsible individual, and that's what gave me what I needed to ascend the ladder of opportunity in this country."
"That's what we need to be thinking about, how do we allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity, rather than how do we give them everything and keep them dependent," Carson said.
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