Dec 9, 2013 1 min read

This is in response to Jaret Romano’s letter, “Myth about minimum wage,” which appeared in the Sunday edition.

First off, these fast food jobs aren’t just for “young people just starting out.” People of all ages and all walks of life work in these slave-wage jobs. While the fast food industry makes multibillion-dollar profits, they pay the minimum wage and employ mostly part-time workers so they don’t have pay benefits. The result is these workers have to go on food stamps and receive other forms of assistance to make ends meet. Guess who pays for the health care of McDonald’s employees? American taxpayers.

As bad as the fast food industry is, Walmart is a greater offender. While the Walton family, which owns more than 50 percent of the company, has more wealth than the lower 42 percent of all Americans, they also pay low wages and no benefits for part-time workers. American taxpayers foot the $7 billion bill for Walmart employees who need government assistance to survive.

Bob Hall

Houston