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Show Where does it stop? The Utah Foundation reports this week that the average salary increase for state employees will be 7.7. Increases will range from 2.5 for some higher paid employees to as much as 27 in a few isolated cases. Milford City's proposed budget calls for a 10 across the board raise for all city employees. Beaver County gave all county employees (hired and elected) a 10 raise Janauary 1st. Our legislators turned their back and raised their own wages a whopping $15,000 per year. Their unconvincing cries of protest pro-test only succeeded in drawing attention . from the fact that their raise was tied into the across-the-board, federal employee cost of living increase. Now President Carter wants to raise the minimum wage from $2.30 per hour to $3.00 in one jump. The original plan called for making the move to $3.00 per hour in i three steps. ." i Now, far ;be it from us to say that any 11 of these' individuals do not need the extra money. Certainly, we don't know of many fat cats anymore in either public or private life. However, in terms of halting inflation, it is kind of like the tail wagging the dog. We openly opposed the Congress including in-cluding themselves In a bill for automatic cost-of-living increases. We oppose automatic auto-matic increases at any level. But as irresponsible ir-responsible as this legislation is it is not as inflationary as raising the minimum wage to $3.00 per hour. Of one thing we're certain no administration ad-ministration will ever halt inflation until they are willing to stop it in the nation's capital first. And, raising the minimum wage will not help the person without a job to find one. The trend will not change until we pay people for what they do instead of how much their neighbor brings home. What ever happened to earning our way? A day's work for a day's pay. All men are not created equal. Or for that matter, neither are women and children. We do not perform at the same level in the same job. We do not perform at equal levels in different jobs. The marketplace once dictated the wage for a particular job. Today, with automatic cost of living increases, this is no longer so.. Longevity now is the most Important criteria for top pay. As each additional pay raise comes along the worker longest on the job gets the biggest raise. Ten percent per-cent of $100.00 is $10.00. The same percentage per-centage of $300.00 is $30.00. It's as simple as that. Jobs used to have a beginning wage. After a determined probationary period, a journeyman wage level for the job was reached. Today, this is seldom so, particularly par-ticularly in government service. An individual indi-vidual hired six months or a year later than another individual will never reach the same pay level regardless of his proficiency pro-ficiency at the job. It could be said that both employees receive the same money at the same longevity lon-gevity on the job. Many industries and com -panies reward Individuals for longevity. But, generally, designated levelk must be - attained to receive this reward. Generally five, ten and twenty years. The, present system rewards employees annually, with the differential between em -ployees becoming greater each year, through percentage annual increases. The marketplace no longer dictates either price of product or wage for production. Prices and wages are dictated by automatic pay increases. Cities and counties cannot hold the line by themselves. Changes in the system sys-tem must begin at the state and federal level. Meanwhile, those working at a minimum wage must suffer. We know of no individual capable of earning better than a minimum wage who is out of work, except by choice. But there are thousands who for one reason or another cannot hold jobs that pay a minimum wage. As graduation nears, thousands thou-sands more of our high school seniors will join the unemployed. One job applicant summed it up when he said, "I cant get a job because I'm not in the union. I can't get in the union because I have no experience. " We feel sorry for this young fellow, who will find the going even tougher with a $3.00 minimum wage. "Red" |