Living Wage Laws

Re “Living Wage Laws Often Harm Poor,” Ventura County Perspective, Jan. 21.

Welcome as they would be, the proposed wages described by Gary M. Galles in the first paragraph of his article would barely enable one to live in Ventura County economically. The current rate is unconscionable.

He further states that few of the affected workers are their family’s sole earner. At the wages paid now to low-skill workers, he uses the term “breadwinner” very loosely. A minimum-wage job with overtime and health benefits would be better for most of these employees.

He then states that if the county passes a living wage ordinance, employers will select the most capable of low-skill workers. Duh. I’m sure that’s the case now--and has been and always will be. Don’t the employees, the employer and the taxpayer deserve that?

Whenever a labor union negotiates a fair wage and benefit package, nonunion employees benefit from it as well because nonunion employers know that if the “trade-off,” i.e. health benefits, union dues, representation, etc., becomes wider, they will lose their most capable low-skill workers to some other better-paying nonunion contractor or to an apprenticeship program.

If Galles is so concerned about taxpayers, he should consider the cost of welfare aid to dependent children and health care services that are needed and used by underpaid, exploited workers.

Shouldn’t someone who has passed an accredited apprenticeship and gone through advanced specialized training as a journeyman be recognized and fairly compensated? If not, maybe a junior college economics graduate should replace professor Galles at Pepperdine.

Mr. Galles, union journeyman tradespeople consider their jobs and talents equally important, honorable and necessary as yours. If a particular construction job does not require this expertise, the person performing the low-skill portions should still be able to live on what they earn.

If Galles is so concerned about the low-skill (low-wage) earner, maybe he and his colleagues should request a one-third cut in salary. This would free up some alumni and university trustee money for scholarships to the children of low-skill workers so that one day they could be educated and skilled enough to have the opportunity to make as good a living as Professor Galles or exploitative contractors.

If the study ordered by the Board of Supervisors is competent, complete, honestly evaluated and bereft of campaign contributions, Ventura County will adopt the proposed living wage ordinance.

MICHAEL E. MURPHY

Camarillo