Competition sets wages, not government

In the May 30 Daily Herald, Denise Brown offers a litany of reasons why her hourly wage of $13.25 for 27 hours worked per week results in take-home pay insufficient to provide for a better lifestyle. Her solution to that problem is to have the government mandate a minimum hourly wage of $15, the amount the McDonald's workers are demanding.

Ms. Brown informs us that McDonald's can easily afford this massive increase in wages because of the extremely high amount of profit they make. If she reads the financial pages of the newspapers, she will realize that things aren't so rosy for McDonald's, who are up against stiff competition from other fast-food operations.

I have never been accused of being excessively bright, but even I can see that raising the starting hourly wage to $15 would result in higher prices to McDonald's customers pay for the food they purchase and/or the replacement of some employees with machines.

Instead of bemoaning the fact that you don't earn enough to live like you want to, get a job that pays more. Become a doctor or lawyer, or a Realtor or CEO of a giant corporation or a president of a bank. If she doesn't have the ability or education to work at those professions and make more money, don't blame McDonald's. It's not their fault.

The other solution to the problem is to get a second part-time job to supplement her income and not worry about paying her bills.That's what I did in my working days and it paid off and afforded me a nice retirement. I didn't ask the government to demand my employer to pay me more money for a job for which hourly wage is, and should be, determined by competition.

Gene Maril

Arlington Heights