Who benefits from wage hike?

Dear editor: There is a lot of talk regarding increasing the minimum wage and I feel all this talk is quite deceptive.

First, I believe that everyone regardless of pay scale works hard for their money. I believe that simply raising the minimum wage is a simplistic government action that is designed to solely benefit the government.

Any raise in the base of the economy is understood to be inflationary. But what else goes up besides the cost of goods?

An increase in a wage means an increase in income taxes, EI contributions, workers’ compensation premiums and even union dues. All of this comes out of the paycheque of the minimum wage earner while the benefits may not go up at all. And the employer contributes to much of this too. All of this is an increase toward inflation while at the same time degrading the raise.

The main people talking about increasing minimum wage are governments and unions. Why? Because as we can see, they are the major beneficiaries.

My view as a business person is that it’s going to be difficult for small businesses, meaning doing more with less workers and investing in automation.

There are those who will profit as they now have the excuse to reduce staff. We have already seen the companies who are ahead of the curve on this. McDonalds and the Canadian banks. This means less jobs. Less jobs means less demand for workers, which will drive down wages.

Yes, the standard needs to go up for the working poor. So why not eliminate tax to the minimum wage earners? Make education free so that a work force can upgrade itself to break away from minimum wage. Free daycare for single parents in education.

These actions I feel would be much less inflationary, contribute to the structure of society and significantly benefit those on minimum wage. I believe simply a straight raise will in the end be damaging to those who need more. Steve Boultbee

Penticton