Editorial ignores details about wage

Does your editorial staff have to attack the working poor of this country? Your editorial on Dec. 28 about a minimum wage increase in California really doesn’t apply here in Arkansas. One company in California — PacPizza LLC — has laid off its delivery drivers, due to the upcoming wage increase to $20, according to your editorial writers. You fail to mention that there was already acrimony between management and the drivers due to a class-action lawsuit claiming the company didn’t reimburse their drivers for vehicle costs (It comes up real fast with an internet search — you guys ought to try that sometime). This doesn’t mean that there will be no pizza deliveries, only that they will be contracted out, paid for by those wanting delivery. Does this mean that the Pizza Hut will lower their prices since they’re going to save money? You certainly claim that they’d have to raise prices to pay the increased wage.

You fail to mention that a living wage in Sacramento (where some layoffs occurred) is $19.20, so it’s not like anyone was going to go out and buy a Porche with the increase. They were just trying to keep their heads above water. You state that about half of minimum wage workers are under 25. It’s sad that you count all of those in the 16-25 group as “kids,” because the last time I checked, anyone 18 and older is a full-fledged adult. And certainly the other half over age 25 are adults, so why would you deny the vast majority of these adult minimum-wage earners a raise up to a living wage? (The $11 minimum wage in Arkansas doesn’t come close to meeting the $16-an-hour living wage necessary to get by here in Northwest Arkansas.)

Let’s look at another fact: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (yeah, those same guys you misquoted to say it was just a bunch of kids), 1 million workers in this country make at — or below! — the minimum wage. This is out of over 140 million workers. You’re claiming that giving a raise to these 0.7% of the very lowest-paid workers in this country is going to wreck the economy and blow up the unemployment rate. That has got to be one of the nastiest, most vile arguments I have every heard. I don’t hear you guys complaining when Bank of America takes out full-page color ads in your newspaper to tell us how they’ve raised their own minimum wage to $23 so far, and are moving to a $25 minimum for their employees by 2025. They certainly haven’t gone under, and they’ve actually gained me as a customer because of it. I’ll bet you guys switched banks after confirming that your new bank doesn’t pay their tellers as well.

Your heartless editorial was just a chance to take a cheap shot at “the left” who advocate for living wages for everyone in this country. Gov. Sanders must love you.

TROY JUZELER Bentonville