Reader KH responded this morning to my story about the poverty rates in San Diego and the proposed statewide minimum wage increase.
His position is clear. “Minimum wage hurts poor people,” he said.
He points out that companies like Costco pay their employees more than companies like Wal-Mart, but hire many fewer employees as a result. With a minimum wage increase, businesses are forced to raise prices, and the poor are disproportionately affected, the reader says.
I’m not opposed to welfare, but it’s so much more complicated to force businesses to pay it instead of simply having the government write checks to those in need. Nobody would argue that proponents of minimum wage aren’t well meaning, just that they happen to be doing more harm than good.
Another reader, RS, thinks the government officials should practice what they preach. She says:
Don’t you find it rather ironic that the city, county, and state, despite an inability [to] balance their own books or effectively administer their finances, have no qualms about projecting their incompetence into the affairs of the business community to impose a minimum wage?