Editor,
I am responding to Mark Erasmus' letter "Constitution does not guarantee minimum wage" in the July 6-12 Daily Lobo.
Since 1997, the federal minimum wage hasn't budged an inch. The actual purchasing power of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 51 years. The Senate's refusal to raise the minimum wage is appalling, especially in light of the fact that Senators have given themselves nine pay raises since 1997. Just last month, they gave themselves a $3,300 pay raise. Meanwhile, a minimum wage worker is earning $10,712 annually.
How can you expect someone to practice your so-called "absolute choice of where and when they want to work" if they can barely make ends meet? It's not a question of an unskilled person trying to find a minimum wage job - it's a question of them just trying to make a living while others make a killing.
You caution against "government coercion infringing on our right to create success and happiness." What do you call child labor laws, weekends and the eight-hour day? These were privileges that were fought and died for by men, women and children at the looms, in the factories and down in the mines. They fought and died for the freedoms you so glibly ignore, and they are freedoms enforced by the same "government coercion" that you caution against.
Stop taking your own privileged alumnus status for granted and realize that there are others who will never have the opportunities you've had, because they're too busy just trying to survive, let alone go to college or "start a co-op." You ought to try living at minimum wage for a month - perhaps your compassion will grow in inverse proportion to your wallet.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
You're right, though, the Constitution does not ensure a minimum wage. What it does ensure is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, something that Congress should uphold and encourage by raising the minimum wage.
August Trebuchet
UNM student
