Consequences of raising minimum wage

To the editor:

I have questions for the folks who want to raise the minimum wage. I work for the school district at $14.25 per hour, or about twice the current minimum wage. If the minimum wage is raised to $15 per hour, will my wage be raised to $30? If yes, how will the school district pay for that raise?

If no, my pay will not be raised, then in effect I will be working at minimum wage in a job that requires a college degree and continuing education for which I must pay. What was the point then of my college education?

If the minimum wage is increased, will the minimum wage workers happily double what they pay their child care providers? If the small business owner must pay the employees the new minimum wage, increased Social Security tax, increased health care tax, and other attendant taxes, will the cost of the product or service rise, or will the owner lay off the employees or close the business? Where is the benefit?

My last question: how did you decide that a planned, controlled, communist economy as envisioned by Karl Marx, was a better choice than a free market, as envisioned by the early Americans?

Julia Bickel

Cedar Rapids