Your Opinion: Wages and jobs

Dear Editor:

An employee's worth is based on the skills of the employee and the status of the labor market. There are justifiable reasons for a business to pay employees more than their worth in a free market but a mandate from the government is not one of them.

Recently I filled my gas tank at a station with no attendant on site; last year there was a person working at the station. During my years in college I worked as a "pump jockey" and pumped a lot of gas for customers. Stations no longer need them because the consumer showed station owners that the cost of an employee wasn't worth the additional price charged to pay for the cost of the employee. (Consumers paid station attendants' employment cost because it was built into higher prices at the stations with attendants.) It appears that totally unmanned stations may be the next step. Government mandated higher minimum wages will only accelerate this process.

The equipment that allows us to self-checkout at stores is not free, but it is apparently less expensive than paying employees to check us out. When consumers use these lanes they are telling the business that it need not pay employees to provide the check-out service. Every time the cost to employ those manning the cash registers increases business will again evaluate options to reduce payroll costs. The Japanese now have a phone store that is staffed by robots, no human on the sales floor.

Business is in business to make a profit for the owners. A side benefit is that they often provide employment for others. Unless we choose to adhere to the philosophy of the Luddites we better start stressing that people, especially young people, gain some type of marketable skill. Jobs are available for skilled tradesmen.

I'm a mean old white conservative male who was raised in a hard-working, blue-collar family but even I don't want any child, nor a seriously disabled person, going hungry.

On the other hand I am tired of being forced to feed those too lazy to gain a marketable skill set, or those content with the welfare hammock (it is far from being a safety net).

Life isn't necessarily "fair" nor is it easy. It takes work to provide the necessities of life for ourselves and our dependents. No one has a "right" to what others have earned.

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