Living wage is far above the minimum

Regarding companies that fail to pay a living wage for employees and costs such actions will have on America.

In response to Tim Ryans article in Wednesdays Manchester, NH Union Leader about Barbara Ehrenreichs new best-selling book Nickel and Dimed", the living wage is far above the minimum paid by most retail, clerical, and food service industries today.

Detroits Big Three realized it was necessary to pay out a living wage of at least $15.00 - $22.00 per hour in the seventies to lesson grievances, keep strikes to a bare minimum, and allow their workers time to live and recover properly for the next day of work.

A living wage is one that allows the worker to go home after an eight to ten hour day and be comfortable enough to not take a night job. It also provides a little after expenses to be either spent at leisure or saved for a rainy day.

A living wage is what creates a strong middle class who pays most of the taxes, gives to charities, and is relied upon for the spending based economy to rise and prosper.

When the middle class becomes the working poor, historically it has led to rebellions, crime, sickness, due to lack of health care, and the increase in individual and organized crime. Doesnt America spend enough on the DEA, drug programs, incarceration, and so forth?

Conservative business owners and politicians should realize how inexpensive it is to maintain a stable workforce by increasing their workers wages and hiring medical doctors and nurses to come to their worksite to care for their assets (people). Constant training, turnover, misplaced line workers, or those too tired to work and become careless because of the five hours of sleep they had between two jobs keeps production low as well as the perception of the company trying to earn an extra few dollars here and there. There is a point in time where poor working families realize that living on welfare, food stamps, Medicare, and subsidized housing is a lot easier than the six to ten dollars an hour at a Wal-Mart and will cheat the system by selling drugs or some other form of black market activity or product.

Companies with ill-thought-out plans like Fruit of the Loom actually believed the public would stop wearing their favorite underwear if they kept their manufacturing end in America. Brands have loyalty regardless of price.

Look at Harley Davidson, Levi Jeans, and Johnsons Baby Powder in price terms; three sets of products where price is not a concern because the public perceives an image of quality that cannot be beat. Market and sell your products at the cost it should be and base labor as a fixed cost.

BJ Gordon & Company is an executive consulting company in Manchester, NH and can be reached at 603-644-7091