Minimum-Wage Increase
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The increase in the California minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 was welcome news, and about time, too. I’m proud to say that organized labor, the AFL-CIO in particular, has been one of the major proponents of boosting the minimum, although it wasn’t a total victory--there was an exclusion for employees who receive tips.
What I don’t understand, and probably never will, is the mentality of management, which time and time again demonstrates its incredible greed and total lack of compassion. Despite all the evidence that $3.25 (and even $4.25) does not begin to bring pay levels of a substantial number of working people to even the poverty level, the employers are wailing the blues and claiming the increase will be inflationary and will increase unemployment.
I suppose another generation of employers was in a tizzy when the minimum went from 75 cents an hour to a $1.75. It’s just their nature, and it’s why we have unions.
THOMAS J. VANDEVELD
President
UFCW LOCAL 135
San Diego
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