In an earlier life I taught school in a Midwestern Rust Belt town. The economy was depressed as auto makers struggled to adjust to new realities. Through the school’s community service program, my students and I were introduced to less fortunate folks as we helped a local church prepare free hot lunches. I found the plight of the working poor especially poignant.

Folks living in poverty suffer poorer health, have shorter lives, and in general have dimmer prospects. Further, the social stigma attached to poverty takes a heavy emotional toll, especially among children. Those working their way out of these trying circumstances deserve our support.

Roughly 12 percent of Gallatin County residents live in poverty. (The statewide number is 14 percent.) The Gallatin Valley Human Rights Task Force is trying to help these folks by securing a ballot initiative to raise Montana’s minimum wage.

I’m sympathetic. But I suspect this approach will have unintended consequences at odds with the proponents’ stated goals. I fear raising the minimum wage may be especially damaging for the long-term prospects of young students trying to decide between finishing high school or dropping out to work full-time. Here’s why.

About half of all minimum wage workers are under the age of 25, and one-quarter of those are between the ages of 16 and 19. Many live with their parents in relatively affluent homes. In 1999 the Department of Health and Human Services found only about 30 percent of minimum wage workers lived in families near or below the poverty line. This suggests that most minimum wage workers are supplementing income, not trying to support families.

Now imagine a high school junior. For pocket money, she works after school in a part-time, minimum wage job. She’s bored with her classes and doesn’t want to attend college. Instead, she wants a car and a place of her own. Raising the minimum wage will increase temptations to drop out. Her choice is between the immediate gratification of a bit more income now, or the potential for higher future earnings after completing high school.

I wonder if she’s aware that in 2003, workers without a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 8.8 percent and median weekly earnings of $396. In contrast, high school graduates had an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent and median weekly earnings of $544. Education pays. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has the compelling data on their web site.

Behavioral research shows (and many parents can attest) that teenagers frequently discount future benefits to near zero. Instead, they prefer immediate benefits. Increasing the minimum wage creates a perverse incentive for some of our youngest workers to forgo high school in favor of work. These are the kids who would benefit most from a high school diploma.

Common sense tells us that when employers are forced to pay above market wages, they hire fewer workers. Consider the French experience. A high minimum wage, combined with highly restrictive labor laws that make hiring and firing difficult, produce youth unemployment in the 25 percent range. (It’s near 50 percent among minorities.) The job losses fall disproportionately on those most likely to rely on the minimum wage for a living.

Here’s an alternative for the Task Force to consider. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) reduces or eliminates the taxes that low-income working people pay. Enacted in 1975, the EITC was expanded in 1986, 1990, 1993, and 2000. It’s one of our largest and most effective anti-poverty tools, enjoying broad bipartisan support.

The EITC has a significant impact on the lives and communities of the nation’s lowest-paid workers. Since its inception, the EITC has lifted more than 5 million of these families above the federal poverty line. A 2000 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that “the EITC is more beneficial for poor families than is the minimum wage.”

While many states have a version of the federal EITC, Montana does not. What if the Task Force launched a campaign to adopt one? For the EITC, unlike the minimum wage, actually helps the working poor. Surely this is the right thing to do.