Rep. Charles Rangel, left, D-N.Y., listens as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, speaks at a home care and healthcare workers rally in support of a $15 minimum wage, Nov. 10, in New York. New York’s governor is raising the minimum wage for about 10,000 state workers to $15 an hour over the next six years. (Mary Altaffer, The Associated Press)
Re: “Raising minimum wage costs jobs,” Nov. 14 letter to the editor.
Letter-writer Gordon Halloran has it backwards. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 — which created the minimum wage, among other things — was not just “implemented to keep employers from taking advantage of young and inexperienced employees in entry-level jobs.” It was implemented to improve the lot of all the working poor — young, old and in-between. And it was intended to be a living wage.
And according to economics, reducing their workforce is employers’ least likely immediate response to an increase in costs due to a higher minimum wage. Staffing levels are driven by current and anticipated demand (and other business needs), rather than by cost. Especially in the kinds of businesses that are likely to pay minimum or near-minimum wage. History confirms it.
Bill Goodrich, Englewood
This letter was published in the Nov. 18 edition.
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