LETTER: California can’t help itself on the minimum wage
Looks like Californians didn’t learn their lesson when Gov. Gavin Newsom raised the minimum wage for fast-food employees to $20 an hour. As predicted, prices went up and some workers’ hours were cut while others were terminated.
Now California will be voting to raise the minimum wage to $18 for most employees. And once again, the people in favor of this don’t think it’ll have any negative affect. One argument for passing this measure is that those earning less are usually on food stamps so we taxpayers are supporting them anyway. This may be true, but if this bill passes and prices rise again, then everyone, including those earning minimum pay, will be paying more. So how is passing this measure going to help anyone?
It’s been said before: You cannot legislate to make people wealthy. The money has to come from somewhere.