LETTER: Minimum wage hike will be a lifeline

Your Dec. 29 editorial, “California pols try to kill as many jobs as possible,” took the cake. A headline clearly designed to get readers worked up.

Nowhere does it state that 21 other states and 38 cities and counties are increasing the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is below $8 an hour. Almost 10 million Americans will get a pay hike. Twenty percent of those have an income below the poverty line and 47 percent live two times below the poverty line.

The editorial ridiculed the idea that hiking the minimum wage will “raise the standard of living” for lower-paid workers and “that is quite significant.” It’s difficult not to find the logic in that statement. Taking a gigantic assumption that there are no downsides, the writers sarcastically propose boosting the minimum wage to “$50 an hour.” Of course, this is not remotely close to the 2024 raises, which will have none of the fallout of that larger increase.