Why is it that the loudest protest against raising the minimum wage comes from some of our wealthiest citizens? Feeling the pinch, are they, at their posh country clubs or meeting monthly payments on their multiple Mercedes and fancy yachts? It's hard to imagine that they can be hard-pressed for ready cash and resentful of the menials who slavishly serve them with salaries below the poverty level, and yet they remain adamant in opposition to a long overdue boost in pay for servile workers in our booming (for the rich anyway) economy.
When the upper classes get a raise in salary, there is little outcry that it is a futile gesture since McDonald's will simply raise the price of the Big Mac by a dollar or more anyway., refusing to absorb the added cost themselves. Instead of cutting into their profits, the increase in salary for their employees (85 cents an hour this year) will be shifted to the consumer anyway.
So why not keep the minimum wage a constant as it has been for the past 10 years or more? The unfortunates at the bottom of the wage scale can't afford to eat at McDonald's anyway, so does it make sense to penalize the rest of us as we merrily eat our way into grotesque obesity and cardiovascular disorders?
Lee Paulson
Glenwood
