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November 15, 2009

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Letter: Wages stagnant, prices increase

Thursday, May 13, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.

Letter writer Dan Ormsby argues that the minimum wage should not be increased because it would cause employers to raise prices. Is he advocating that no worker should ever receive a raise?

I don't know what Mr. Orsmby does for a living, but I doubt he has ever turned down a wage increase because he was concerned it would cause his employer to raise prices. Many people working minimum-wage jobs are not offered raises no matter how well they do their jobs or how many additional skills they learn.

Even if these workers are lucky enough to move on to better jobs, the ones they vacate will still pay poverty wages to the next applicant. If you think these jobs are only offered to high school students, think again. The fact is that some employers would pay even less than $5.15 an hour if they could legally do so.

The minimum wage has not been raised in years, yet the price of just about everything has increased. These increases were obviously not due to pay increases for minimum-wage workers.

PATRICIA DUCHARME

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