Letter to the Editor: Give low wage workers credit for holding down a job

To the Editor:
In a letter to the Editor in the February 4 edition of The Standard, the writer was unhappy about the possibility of increasing the minimum wage to 10 or 15 dollars per hour because people working for the present minimum wage are having trouble supporting their families. McDonalds and Walmart were specifically mentioned. Those two companies are not the only ones guilty of feeling their employees’ time is so worthless and keep them at slave or almost starvation wages while some CEOs are making a million dollars per year. Most of those large companies would hardly notice a difference in their bottom lines if the minimum wage were increased.
That lady that wrote to the Editor slapped a lot of people in the face with her statements. Let’s at least give these people credit for holding down a job, underpaid as they are. Jobs are scarce. The lady who wrote that letter was afraid that should the minimum wage be increased, Walmart couldn’t afford to have greeters and the price of a Big Mac would increase dramatically. Oh, how awful.
I firmly believe that is this lady were to ask low wage earners if they like working for low wages in a dead-end job, trying to make ends meet after standing on a hard concrete floor all day long, flipping burgers or checking out discontented customers, she wouldn’t get many “Oh, I just love my job.”
Some of the people working low-paying jobs just aren’t school oriented, or maybe just don’t like school, or maybe have family situations or learning disabilities. There are many different reasons.
If these people, who she says are of the “you owe me something” groups, all quit flipping burgers and went to school to better themselves, who is going to make a Big Mac, or stock shelves, or greet her at Walmart?
What about some of the college graduates I’ve heard of who borrowed many thousands of dollars in an effort to better themselves, and having bettered themselves with a degree, can’t find a job and are saddled with a huge monetary debt? Now what? Oh yeah, flip burgers at McDonalds.

Nanfred & Judy Felke
Waukon