Some legislators think they are conservative. Actually, they don’t have a clue.
Here’s what conservative is. It’s a living wage.
Employers have a responsibility to pay their workers a living wage. Responsibility is the defining characteristic of conservatism.
A living wage will get hundreds of workers off welfare. Reducing welfare is a goal of conservatives.
A living wage enables workers to be independent of government aid. Rugged individualism is the ideal of conservatives.
Reducing welfare will save tax dollars. This is fiscal conservatism.
Raising the minimum wage to a living wage will give workers more money with which to purchase goods and services. This is good for business, a cause advocated by conservatives.
I realize that there are small businesses that cannot afford to pay their workers a living wage. It would be irresponsible to expect them to do this — not conservative. Let them wait for the economy to get better.
But businesses that can pay a living wage, but don’t, are not conservative.
Leon Johnson, West Valley City