My store is teetering on the edge of needing to hire one more person to help out with "back-end" store operations during the hopefully busy holiday selling season. The tasks prescribed would include cleaning the store and stocking shelves while also learning about our business and hopefully becoming a part of our sales staff after the holiday season is over. My ideal candidate for this position would be a high school student looking for an after-school job. ... I like to believe that I still embrace the old values of hard work and responsibility that my grandfather taught me and would love to teach those skills to younger workers and help them start their working lives with a solid employment reference. However, I find it hard to justify $8.55 an hour for someone on their first job, especially considering that I'm only able to pay my most senior sales associate just more than 50 cents per hour over minimum wage/Henry Johnston, Moscow-Pullman Daily News. More here.

Question: Washington's minimum wage is higher than the national average. Does Henry Johnston make a good point that the Washington wage should be cut to help small business?