Editor,
I am writing in response to Nicole Dellinger's letter in Monday's issue of the Daily Lobo regarding the proposed statewide raise of the minimum wage. In her letter, Dellinger gives considerable weight to her ideas about the effect of the minimum wage increase on Santa Fe's local economy.
I am a resident of Santa Fe and, until Jan. 13, was manager of a Santa Fe personnel agency, employing an average of 80 people per week.
In my experience, the initial increase in Santa Fe's minimum wage from $5.15 to $8.50 per hour had little effect on the local businesses. As manager, I was in daily contact with the owners and managers of businesses in a cross section of industries, and I know of only a handful of people who claim to have suffered at all under the increased wage.
Even those who continue to oppose the ordinance admit that they can live with the $8.50 rate - a 65 percent increase - though they oppose the new rate of $9.50 per hour as of Jan. 1 and the scheduled increase to $10.50 per hour in 2008.
As a resident of Santa Fe and an employee who "earned a college degree and worked hard to get that $50,000 every year," as Dellinger wrote, I am qualified to say that I've had no difficulty paying my bills and saw no inflationary effect whatsoever between June 2004 - the date the law began to be enforced - and September 2005. The inflation Santa Feans have experienced since then is only our share of the national burden, primarily attributable to exorbitant energy prices.
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Finally, I paid enough attention in Economics 101 and subsequent economics courses to learn that the curves of supply and demand are general rules that assist in making rough theoretical estimates, and that Adam Smith's "invisible hand" does occasionally need some redirection.
I also learned that for every economist who warns against any application of justice to the distribution of wealth, there is an equally respected economist who can demonstrate the positive effects of wage increases at all levels of the economy.
Silas Peterson
UNM student
