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Millions need a boost in minimum wage
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Regarding "A Minimum Wage Hike Affects All Compensation" (Feb. 21 letters):
On the T sits Linda the lawyer (median 2011 yearly wage of $113,310, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), enervated after a long day of toil, she has more drudgery. In the next seat is poor Harry the HR manager (median 2011 yearly wage of $99,130, BLS), with that vile paperwork in his attache case.
Near them sits Mindy the minimum-wage earner who luckily was never ill, managing to work 40 hours every week last year, earning $15,080. Her McJob doesn't require any of that soul-killing paperwork that poor Linda and Harry must brook.
And thanks to her socialist president and his ilk, she may eventually get a mandatory raise of $1.75 per hour. What's a girl to do with that extra $3,640? Lordy, that comes to almost $19K a year! And wait a minute: Those making that amount now are going to expect to make at least $22K a year! Oh, the injustice of it all.
Is there no one to hear the cri de couer of the downtrodden upper-middle-class victims?
Fortunately a brave retired HR director has sought to set things right by noting that a "supervisor receives no overtime pay and has more job stress than his or her subordinates and therefore is entitled and receives greater compensation." Perhaps I am misinformed, but I thought many corporations give what are called "bonuses" (often exceeding $1.75 per hour).
Though not retired, I am sure glad not to work a minimum-wage job, of which I had many in the past. Oddly enough, I found that the lower the compensation, generally the more stressful and odious the job.
Unfortunately, millions of Americans have low IQs, which severely limit their vocational choices (and are not paid such a low wage for a "relatively short period" as the Feb. 21 letter writer quixotically asserts). Are they not entitled to a living wage? It's time for the working poor to receive the pay they deserve. Let's hope Republicans won't block a much-needed increase in the minimum wage.
MARK KIRBY
Brighton Heights
First Published March 13, 2013 12:00 am
