I just read the article by Hannah Taylor in today’s Emerald. While the article is well-written, avoiding the generous salting of grammatical and spelling errors that plagued another local campus newspaper in the recent past, it does ignore the fact that the minimum wage in Oregon currently stands at $8.95 per hour. I do see in the article (Paragraph 8 of 9) that she has addressed the current Federal minimum wage which is $7.25, and has been for nearly four years now. Given that Oregon’s minimum is so close to the Federal minimum proposed by President Obama, I see no reason to think that making that increase would cost any on-campus jobs open to students through work-study or other programs.

Penny McKibben

Alumna, Class of 2011