Minimum wage cut won't help workers

It was with disgust and alarm that I read the letter by Kristen Lopez Eastlick in the Jan. 18 Fence Post suggesting that job growth could be spurred by a cut in the minimum wage. Her line of thinking is no doubt embraced by big box retailers that pay employees poverty wages knowing that in such tough times as these, they are often the only job available, and would welcome an opportunity such as this to cut those wages even further.

I might even be tempted to believe that Ms. Eastlick is little more than a lackey of these corporate interests and their substantial lobbyist arms. Unfortunately Ms. Eastlick fails to take into account the ever-increasing costs of living that workers face, and which even in the best of economic times their wages can barely, if at all keep up with.

It is very hard to believe that a company is having financial difficulties forcing it to cut workers, when we also hear of the obscene bonuses being paid to those in the upper echelons, perhaps Ms. Eastlick might care to address that inequity instead of further burdening workers by cutting the minimum wage?

Donald E. Brynelsen

Schaumburg