Editor:

Jay Richards claims that “a substantial number” of the work force works at or near the minimum wage. The reason he fails to supply any facts to support his claim is that there are none.

Liberals tell horrible stories about single moms with seven children working 80 hours a week at minimum wage. Those same liberals refuse to allow a study into how many workers are actually making minimum wage and who these people are. Maybe it’s because they’re afraid of what they will find.

The truth is (and I know you liberals don’t like the truth because it gets in the way of your arguments) that many workers making $5.15 an hour are zit-faced 16-year-olds who are thrilled to be making that much.

When Richards says that Utah should raise the minimum wage, he is making the ignorant assumption that if the minimum wage is increased, employers will simply give their employees a raise. In reality, it will only make it harder for the poor to get jobs. Some workers’ labor just isn’t as valuable as others’. If you force an employer to pay them more than they are worth, they will be fired. The unemployed are then forced into illegal professions or welfare. Of course, forcing everyone into welfare is the liberal dream.

Luckily, the current minimum wage is low enough that it is not doing significant damage. Let’s keep it that way. Artificially increasing the price of labor will benefit nobody and the people hurt the most by it will be the poor.

Kellen Wilson

Junior, Finance and Spanish