Liz Elfring’s March 7 letter “Earn a raise, don’t demand it” asked why people with few job skills should be rewarded with a higher living wage. Elfring stated “starter jobs” are just that and people are supposed to use them as a step up to “bigger and better things.” Oddly, she acknowledges that those “bigger and better things” aren’t out there right now, so her answer to that is to just get another job.
Elfring seems to feel as if only educated people should be able to pay their rent. I guess she’s missed the stories about how college graduates are competing with unskilled workers for minimum-wage jobs because of the state of the job market. These same college-educated students are having to default on their loans because they can’t find work. It’s really hard to find one job, let alone two.
I suspect Elfring comes from a time when businesses took care of their employees, giving them health benefits and retirement. Entitled-feeling people like Elfring love to complain about people wanting handouts, but then want to deny workers a living wage. Well, you can’t have it both ways.
It’s a fact that when people earn a living wage (no matter what that job may be) and have enough money left over, they shop. They go on vacation. They send their children to college. They stimulate the economy.
