Raising minimum would help poor

Thank you for the excellent guest commentary on wage inequity by Toni Kief on Friday.

To start with, we need an immediate increase in the Washington minimum wage to $13 per hour. Most minimum wage jobs are in food service, dry cleaners and mini-marts. Employers paying minimum wage are not in competition with wages in China, so these jobs are not exportable. All burgers at all burger joints would cost five cents more, so burger joints paying minimum wage would not be impacted adversely. Owners would howl, but to them a higher minimum wage would be a mere inconvenience, whereas to the poor it would help them survive. Also, it would mean fewer people on public assistance. And maybe the poor could afford a few more burgers.

Emelyn Lim Pateno

Lynnwood