Prop. 210 to Raise Minimum Wage

Re “Bad Timing for Prop. 210,” editorial, Oct. 14:

The Times contends minimum-wage hikes should be dictated by the market and not the voters. But what the market has produced are skyrocketing salaries for corporate executives, stagnating pay for middle-class wage earners and a 26% drop in the value of the minimum wage for low-wage workers over the last eight years. Perhaps the voters will better understand concepts such as equity and fairness.

The new $4.75-per-hour federal minimum wage still leaves a California family of three $3,100 below the poverty line. Even if voters approve Prop. 210’s higher rate--$5 next March 1 and $5.75 in 1998--the new California minimum wage will still be worth only 81% of the purchasing power of the minimum wage in 1979.

If proponents of last summer’s changes in welfare are serious about moving people from welfare to work, then Prop. 210 is a must. Despite claims from Prop. 210 opponents, 80% of low-wage workers are adults. Men and women who work full-time for the minimum wage earn less income than those on welfare. Work should pay better than welfare.

MIGUEL CONTRERAS

Executive Secretary Treasurer

Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

* Your editorial argues that employers will either pass along their increased costs to their customers or will let workers go. You fail to consider a much more likely outcome: that businesses will be forced to dip into their substantial profit margins to pay for the new and more humane standards that the voters will have mandated.

Only a portion of a business’ increased costs can be passed along to its customers, since demand will decrease as prices rise. Even if some costs are passed along, the customers affected will almost certainly be in a better economic position than the workers benefited by the increase. If restaurant patrons, or buyers of designer clothing, for example, have to shell out a few more cents for the busboys or garment workers who enrich their lives (and such costs are only a tiny fraction of the inflated prices of these purchases), this state will still be a much better place for us all, wealthy or poor.

CARL GUNTHER

West Hollywood