OPINION:
As a conservative, I can live with raising the minimum wage. I think a lot of the jobs in question are service jobs that can’t be exported. However, I don’t think it will help alleviate poverty (and in fact it may hurt the very people it is alleged to be helping).
If improving the wages of lower-income people is what Democrats want, why are they in favor of letting millions of low-skilled workers who arrived illegally to stay in this country? The biggest culprit for wage decline is the sluggish economy; the second biggest would be allowing millions of low-skilled workers to be added to that labor pool.
If you want to help people at the bottom of the income ladder, you don’t add more people to the pool of folks looking for those low-skilled, entry-level jobs. In fact, if you shrink the labor pool for low-skilled employees, employers would have to pay more to get the people they need so they can operate.
This is a big disconnect: The very people pushing for a raise in the minimum wage are the same people who want to legalize the permanent presence of millions of low-skilled workers. It logically follows that they must also like having people impoverished and want more people in such situations.
CHARLIE CROWDER
Glen Allen, Va.
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