Economists agree: Minimum wage hikes kill jobs
To the editor:
Restaurant owners and other low-margin employers are crying out for relief from Nevada’s onerous labor costs, among the highest in the nation. With last year’s mandated increase in the state minimum wage, one small business owner warned “some people may lose their jobs.” But no matter. Tsedeye Gebreselassie of the National Employment Law Project knows what’s best for these employers and their employees — even higher labor costs (“Minimum wage doesn’t kill jobs,” Sunday Review-Journal).
Nevada’s 33 percent teen unemployment rate was among the highest in the nation in 2010. Research from West Point found that each 10 percent increase in a state’s minimum wage has decreased teen employment by as much as 3.6 percent.
Instead of relying on a few outliers that tell activists what they want to hear, we should look at the academic record: according to economists from the Federal Reserve Board and the University of California-Irvine, 85 percent of the best studies on the subject confirm the widely accepted economic consensus that increases in the minimum wage lead to job loss.
But you don’t need to take my word for it, or theirs. Just ask the one out of three teens in the Silver State who went looking for work last summer and couldn’t find it.
Michael Saltsman
Washington, D.C.
The writer is a research fellow with the Employment Policies Institute.
Pass from police
To the editor:
In response to Vin Suprynowicz’s Sunday commentary, “Selective enforcement or protected speech?”:
So Las Vegas police give the Nation of Islam a pass for harassing and intimidating drivers. Would they give the Aryan Nation the same privilege?
Leader Louis Farrakhan has continuously spewed hate against Christians and Jews and has the support of the good colonel in Libya.
How many drivers have complained about Nation of Islam antics throughout the years? Yet their complaints go ignored.
Actions like this make citizens question Metro’s integrity.
Murray Rosner
Las Vegas
Fool me once …
To the editor:
I am responding to the Friday column by Steve Sebelius. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Sebelius’ statement that “Sharron Angle’s appeal to a conservative base has not waned in the past five months.”
Her base is slipping away day by day, and she has lost quite a bit of support, not only from the Republican Party in Nevada, but from her tea party base as well. She still has the same tired campaign staff and advisers who disperse the same hackneyed message from her failed Senate bid. Nothing is new. She is an embarrassment to all conservatives in Nevada.
I can only hope that Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki enters the race for Congressional District 2 and sends little Miss Dorothy packing. She duped us once, but not again.
Joann Schoch
Las Vegas
Vote with your feet
To the editor:
I read with interest Saturday’s letter by Diana Gruber complaining about the “slick operators” of homeowner associations.
I moved to a HOA nearly 20 years ago, and having the regulations, fees and fines were a very important part of my decision before I built my home there. As far as I know, Ms. Gruber is free to purchase or rent a home anywhere in this country, so if she is not happy living in a HOA, she surely needs to exercise that freedom and move.
Judith Ann Ruf
Las Vegas
Deaf students
To the editor:
In response to your Saturday story, “School for deaf needs aid to remain open”:
How dare we take away the rights of deaf American students while students who are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants, who do not know how to speak English, have money thrown at them to attend our schools?
Richard Krikalo
Las Vegas
