WAGES: Not your call, cities

Idaho should restrict individual cities from setting minimum wage standards. If one city imposes a minimum, their local businesses will have a hard time competing with like businesses in the next town or city. Customers will go to the business that offers the best value for their dollar, and a business must keep operating costs as low as possible.

Better employees demand and receive wage increases — they do not need government intervention, and by enabling the governing body to establish wage laws, we take one further step toward socialism. Under government mandates, the local economic engine grinds to a halt, and then no one works anywhere, while the former work force converts to incapable welfare recipients.

People learning a trade or a skill get less pay than people with experience and skill; that is an economic “law” and a natural incentive for people to gain knowledge, experience, to hone their skills, to market themselves to employers who will pay higher wages for talented, experienced people. Well-meaning legislation to raise the minimum wage only hurts the entire community, and Idaho’s legislature knows this.

WILLIAM STRATFORD

Spirit Lake