LETTER: The Minimum Wage: It’s a Job Killer and a Job Repressor

A Dec. 30 letter by a former career Labor Department bureaucrat claimed the haves have had it in for the have-nots for decades because the wealthy have allegedly conspired to oppose increasing artificial wage floors (minimum wage rates).

He claimed that jobs were never killed by such measures, which is untrue. But the real issue is jobs that were never created, which he conveniently didn’t mention.

By setting an artificial minimum wage by decree, those whose skills are not worth whatever wage Washington finds adequate (generally, low-skilled young people) are simply not employed. Unemployment among young adults is currently estimated to be greater than 50 percent. Essentially, our elected officials and career bureaucrats in government have told millions of young people that they are unqualified for any job.