Raising wage is risky business

By Jack Oliver, Las Vegas

Wednesday, May 31, 2017 | 2 a.m.

David Cooper wrote a compelling column for InsideSources.com as to why the minimum wage should be increased to $15 an hour. He spoke of the millions of workers who would start to earn a livable wage. However, sometimes when something sounds too good to be true we should be leery, and this is one of those times.

In his last paragraph he says that if wages are raised to $15 by 2024, for the first time ever the minimum wage would no longer be a poverty wage. The problem with his thinking is that all raising this wage is going to do is increase inflation, which means higher prices on all goods and services. That will make $15 a new poverty level.

I’m surprised that with Cooper’s background as a senior economic analyst, he can’t appreciate the fact that the increased wages demand that prices go up to supply the increased salaries.

Additionally, although millions of low-income people will earn more money, it’s at the expense of the rest of us who will not only have to pay higher prices for everything, which will erode our savings.

The bottom line is that if raising the minimum wage is such a good idea, why do they have to keep doing it over the years?