Do the fast-food workers who were helped think their pay is too high?

Re “Fast-food wage hike flops” (Oct. 4): The opinion piece criticizing California’s $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers as too high omitted opinions of an important group — fast-food workers. Instead, the authors, echoing lobbyists for the restaurant and hotel industries, presented arguments based on “the best data,” “media reports” and the comments of “a trade group.”

While the authors contend that jobs and hours were lost because of increasing the minimum wage, they did not mention that in California, even $20 per hour does not provide a “living wage,” as defined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which determines wage levels needed in each state to afford adequate shelter, food and other necessities of life, indicates that in California, a single, full-time worker needs to earn $28.71 per hour for a living wage. Wages below that move workers into the poverty category.

— Charles Perkins, La Mesa