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Show OPINION Monday, February 5,2007 Page 6 EDITORIAL score a wage boost S tudent wallets might soon feel a bit heavier. That's because the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives recently P^ s . e d a MATT minimum ivj-rti 1 wage increase. HOMER If signed into law, it will ,..v raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over a two-year period. "What will be the effect on students? A quick glance at the U's job postings shows that a number of campus jobs pay fewer than $7.25 an hour. Currently there are openings for a box office assistant at Pioneer Memorial Theatre for $6 an hour, a cashier at Commuter Services for $6.95 and an usher at the Huntsman Center for $6, just to name a few. My first campus job paid a meager $6 an hour. I knew I could get a better-paying job elsewhere, but I chose to take the campus job instead. Now, the U will be required to pay students a little more. ;; Based on data provided by the Congressional Research Service, it appears that U, students are not alone in receiving substandard, wages. Of those earning fewer than $7.25 an hour, 24.7 percent are between the ages of 20 and 24—that's 2.68 million individuals, many of whom are" likely to be students. Raising the minimum wage will certainly help students keep up with constant tuition increases, but what other effects will it haVe?lr t r i r ' w*^<i -The conventional wisdom of many economists is that ••> raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. They argue that companies will be unable to employ as many workers at the-higher wage level and will be forced to let some go or cut back on the number of new people they hire. Some even argue that a higher wage rate will encourage students to drop out of school and work instead. These arguy * ments would seem plausible if the minimum wage rate were above the equilibrium (market) rate. Today, however, few companies can attract workers at a wage below $7.25. And according to the American Economic Association, fewer than 50 percent of economists now believe that raising the nunhnum wage actually increases unemployment. Recent studies by economists Alan Krueger and David Card show little connection between unemployment and minimum wage increases. If anything, this law will force tightwad employers—like the U—to pay a competitive wage, or at least something closer to the market rate. The university currently has more than 700 job openings, many of which probably remain unfilled because they pay so little. The last minimum wage increase occurred in 1997, and since that time its value has been eroded by inflation and, for students, continual tuition hikes. Raising the rninimum wage will help more students afford college and let current students work less and focus more on then* studies. a!r As*ltheCongressional -^' s '' Research Service points out; '. in four workers between ^ the ages of 20 and 24 could expect a raise if this measure passes through Congress and is approved by the president. For many students, this could make all the difference. ^Unsigned editorials reflect.the majority opinion of The Daily Utah Chronicle '• Editorial Board. Signed editorials, editorial columns and letters to the editor are } strictly the opinions of the author. The forum created on the Opinion Page is one |{; based on vigorous debate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, ethnic background, < religion, creed, gender, appearance or sexual orientation will be edited or will not be published. All letters to the-editor will now be published online at www.dailyu: tahchronkle.com. Letters that the editor deems best represent those received will '. be printed in the newspaper as well as online. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Crime is clear as day Editor: The illegal immigration debate is not complicated. It's not about racism. Immigrants of all races are expected to obey the law. It's not about separating families. If the whole family would choose to obey the law from the beginning, then the family would not be broken. Many immigrants leave their families to come to the United States. If you are concerned about keeping families together, then we should send them home. One argument for in-state tuition is that children were brought here, and they should not be punished for their parents' crimes. How many 12-year-olds attend college? Once they turn 18, they can no longer blame their crimes on their parents. Another argument is that they pay state taxes. If this is true, then they have committed identity theft. Adding to their criminal activity is not an effective defense. Other arguments include, "They're hard workers," and, "They just want to support their families." Nobodyis debating that. I am also a hard worker, but that doesn't give me immunity from the law. The question is very simple: Should we reward criminal activity? The answer is no. No thinking person can argue with that. Kellen Wilson Senior, Spanish and Finance Defend the right to defend yourself Editor: As a student and staff member at the U, I would like to voice my opposition to the pursuit of legislation to ban concealed firearms on campus. Anyone who goes through the procedure of taking a concealed carry course, getting fingerprints, an identification card and a background check in order to legally carry afirearmis the least of the U's concerns. Any "threats of violence," as University of Utah President Michael1 K. Young spoke of in his campus^wide e-mail, are unlikely to come from someone who is making every effort to follow the laws of the state and the nation by completing the process to carry a concealed firearm. Banning concealed weapons on campus will only take away people's rights to defend themselves from harm. No one who intends to harm another person with afirearm—orany other dangerous weapon—is going to bother with the process of obtaining a concealed firearm permit. The ban will only remove any possibility of defense against those who intend to harm others, with or without a permit. R. Scott Halladay Junior, Business My family has been deported thanks to a tip-off. Only lam left now... My mother and baby sister died while in the desert as we came here... I cant even get a job! Nothing that pays more than minimum wage... t Tm afraid my friends will shun me if they learn the truth... Who says illegal aliens don't have to pay anything to be here... But the personal price is probably the greatest.. MAITE CARRANZA/ The Daily Utah Chrmiclc Insurance brokers are just bookies Basic health care is a human right M aking people choose between paying rent and seeing a doctor is evil. I'm not advocating universal ANDREW health care, but antibiotics and KIRK first aid are not luxuries to be bartered for. If we want to continue having the best medicine in the world, we're going to have to pay for it. list. But I shouldn't have to make that choice. But how is it that even povertyInsurance companies are going stricken developing countries like Cuba and Venezuela are able to be making thousands off of me over the next 40 years. They take to afford free clinics? Shouldn't some of the money we pay guar- a gamble when signing me up, but as in Vegas, the house always antee basic services? wins in the long run. Universal health care is a The difference is that when disaster. I've heard of a Canadian you gamble in a casino, it's for a woman who died of a cancer couple hundred dollars, and it's that is usually survived in this country because she couldn't get for fun. When you gamble with the treatments when she needed insurance, it's for thousands of dollars and it's for your life. I them. The wait -was too long. A close friend of mine didn't fin- think that's an unfair game. Last year, I had insurance but ish his LDS mission because he forgot to get aflushot. After chose to return to Nova Scotia Christmas I came down with for physical therapy and could afluthat lasted three weeks. only be seen once a month. The money I was losing by not I'd sacrifice my home and car working was less than a doctor's to get the treatment I needed bill, so I tried to stick it out. My rather than suffer on a waiting insurance only kicked in after $500, and a doctor's appointment can run from $150 to $300. I lost the gamble and finally had to see a doctor when fluid began collecting in my lungs—what a fun game to play. A 30-minute visit and bottle of antibiotics cost me $250—the value of half my rent. I remembered to get aflushot this year. While I was waiting to pay at the U student clinic, the woman in front of me was given her bill for $300 and started crying. > "• • Last month my neighbor asked for an LDS priesthood blessing for her injured arm. She had fallen and it still hurt after several days, but she couldn't afford to see a doctor. A blessing was her best option. Insurance companies are going to get rich off of the three of us, and yet they refuse to help when we're young and poor. I don't want Canadian hospitals, but I refuse to believe that free or discounted health clinics would topple our system. letters@chronicle.utah.edu Standing in the shadows How are women to succeed in politics? T here has always been a place for American women in presidential elections—at the side of the man who is running for office. This is where Michelle Obama now finds herself. A highly educated former lawyer who was once assigned as the firm mentor to a lowly intern named Barack Obama, Michelle is now in the race to befirstlady. Then there's Hillary Clinton. Having already been first lady, she wants to be more than the president's wife—she wants to be the president. Clinton is exciting for a lot of people—a woman who has broken out of the shell of a first lady to become something more. But is this really that amazing when Clinton sat quiet and subdued behind her husband for all those years in order to get what she wanted? It's typical for a woman to put herself second to the man in her life. Whether it is for societal or biological reasons, women have a tendency to promote the successes of men, regardless of whether or not it comes at the expense of their own. Both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton have done this. I can't help wondering what lessons to take from the lives of these women who are supposed to serve as role models to young women like me. Should I learn from Obamar— the shadow of a husband whose position she aspired to attain. People may think that she is great for getting where she is, LINDSEY but the means by which she got SINE there is counterproductive to feminism. Instead of doing it on her own, she waited around for her huswho is amazing in her accomband to getfinishedwith what plishments but willing to let she wanted and then took the her husband take the lead—or reins. This is hardly admirable. should I learn from ClinYes, for the first time, a woman ton—who played the role of the actually has a shot at becoming supportive wife at one point, but president, but is it a great thing only used it to benefit herself at when, in order to get there, she a later time? wore the little white gloves and did what she was told? In a recent interview with Newsweek, Michelle Obama In contrast, Michelle has done was painted as a woman who, the exact opposite. She wanted although amazingly talented and to be a lawyer, so she was one. successful in her ownright,is When she didn't want that anyconcerned with paving the way more, it had nothing to do with for Barack Obama's many sucher husband's political career and cesses. It was implied that, had it everything to do with her desires not been for Michelle's connecfor a different type of success. tions, Barack might not have Yes, Michelle Obama is the made it through the Democratic biggest advocate of her husband, primary in Illinois that made him but if you dig a little further, you a U.S. Senator. see that she is also the biggest Hillary Clinton, on the other advocate of herself—she continhand, is being portrayed as a ues to keep a full-tune job even champion for womankind. now as elections are heating up. In looking at these two womThere is much more to be en, it's easy to turn to Hillary in learned from a woman like admiration. She knows what she Obama, who enjoys the successwants, as she likely always has, es of her own life at her own free and she'll do whatever it takes to will, than a woman like Clinton, get there. who takes the back seat when she has to. But it is that same drive that landed Clinton where she was: in letters@chronicle.utah.edu |
