To the Editor:
Re “Push to Lift Hourly Pay Is Now Serious Business” (front page, July 24):
Raising the minimum wage in New York would harm rather than help workers in the fast-food industry. Some employees no doubt would be given fewer work hours or become jobless as a result of the wage increase. Many others would never get a job at all.
But the labor unions behind the increase hope to benefit because the change could bring them more members and fill their dwindling coffers. Moreover, the state wage board’s decision to recommend a $15-an-hour minimum wage for just one industry segment is arbitrary, blatantly discriminatory and little more than payback to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s political supporters.
Politicians should keep their ideology out of the marketplace.
STEVE CALDEIRA
President and Chief Executive
International Franchise Association
Washington
