Minimum Wage

Deane C. Kensok’s letter (June 13) against increasing the minimum wage is the perfect illustration of the ignorance which persists on this issue.

Kensok feels that by lowering the minimum wage you would create more jobs. Let’s drop the minimum wage to, let’s say a penny an hour--we would have full employment by his thinking. If this was the case there would be full employment in all of the underdeveloped countries. In the Philippines for example the minimum wage is about $25 a week and the employers complain that it’s too high, just like they do here.

For my money the minimum wage should be doubled. In the early 1960s McDonald’s hamburgers were 10 cents, gas was 18 cents. The minimum wage was $1.35. There’s been a six-fold increase in prices but only a three-fold increase in wages.

At this moment this is hurting minimum wage earners the most, but in the long run it will hurt us all. These people are not part of our consumer-driven economy any longer. Companies are not selling to these people, which leads to smaller markets, which leads to lower wages, which leads to lower sales, etc.

In the end we will be just like the Philippines. A small portion of the population will live behind 10-foot-high block walls trying to forget what’s on the other side, or as in most cases taking advantage of the rest of the population. The odds are that you will be on the wrong side of that wall. The shame of it is that for 2 cents more for a box of cereal or a hamburger or a gallon of gas, we could make these people part of our economy and taxpayers. We should be working to lift the Third World up to our level, not taking our level down to theirs.

STEVEN GIBSON

Mission Hills