Article Review

I don’t agree with Ms. Tung’s claim. Though all industries share the same labor market, there are different rules in different industries. Big companies in the food industry, like McDonald, tend to be multinational corporations. Jobs in these restaurants are comparatively easier. Even high-school students can do the waiter or waitress’s job. And it won’t be long before a person learns how to make burgers and fry chicken. Thus, the personnel flow in these restaurants is high. It is easy for these restaurants to replace with new persons, so they try to control the wage for more profits. Any objection means losing the job. People in these restaurants feel insecure. Meanwhile, the wage they get is not enough to keep workers from relying on food stamps and other welfare benefits, especially in New York, one of the highest living cost cities in the US. That is the main reason for the need of wage raising. If the food industry adjusts the wage to $15 per hour, the personnel flow in these restaurants will decrease sharply, which means that there will not be a large demand of new recruits. Even though people in other industries want to join in this industry, there will not be many chances. Thus, the influence of wages in other industries is quite limited. And workers in other industries tend to have a more stable job for the skill required. Not many people will risk their stable jobs for unstable jobs with a little higher wage.

Besides, the economy has a clear geographic feature and different regions have different economic conditions. Due to the high living cost of New York, its wage raising requirement is reasonable because the wage standard and the living cost fail to match with each other. Other states might have a much lower living cost, and there is the reason their minimum wage standard is comparatively lower. The adjustment of minimum wage standard and the legalization of same-sex marriage are, in essence, two totally different things. The adjustment of wage standard should consider the specific economic condition. It is not a problem of human rights or democracy.