The consequences of employment protection legislation (EPL) on unemployment rates are mixed and therefore controversial. Some studies argue it has no effect on the unemployment rates while others argue that stricter EPL is significantly and positively associated with higher unemployment levels; however, these studies only focus on EPL and the aggregate unemployment levels as oppose to a specific vulnerable demographic groups, such as youth who are new to the labor market. As a result, this study examines the effect EPL has on youth unemployment rates in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. It uses OECD data from 1985 to 2008 in a simple ordinary least squares regression controlling for duration of unemployment, taxation, the minimum wage and country and time dummy variables. The findings show that EPL is negatively and significantly associated with the youth unemployment rate in OECD countries suggesting that EPL actually lowers the youth unemployment rate, regardless of gender. This gives evidence for those who argue for greater regulation within the labor market.