I’m responding to “Report: Wage hike would aid poor; cost jobs” (Feb. 19).

If the minimum wage increases, it will be more difficult to find a job in the future. The way payroll taxes are set up, after everything is added up, the final per hour total is almost twice an employees’ hourly wage. This is why U.S. corporations transfer jobs into different countries.

The Federal Reserve eventually will increase interest rates, which will further increase inflation. Higher inflation will decrease consumer spending, lowering business profits and detracting employers from hiring. Inflation also will influence individuals to obtain secondary jobs, just to maintain their standard of living. Already competing for secondary jobs are those saving to invest into their own future independent business operations.

Those competing for secondary jobs may be more qualified and have more education and/or work experience than the average unemployed person.

About this same time, employers will be considering replacing human workers with various forms of technology. They may decide to go with technology, if their profit margins were small before interest rates rose. If that’s true for a number of small businesses, then it will hit the sector historically responsible for creating more new jobs than corporations.

The bottom line is: Anything multiplied by zero, equals zero. Translation: A job paying $7.50 per hour is better than having no job paying zero dollars per hour. When the minimum wage increases, many job seekers will be stuck with zero income. Those who can’t obtain a job will regret an increase in minimum wage. This is why laws increasing the minimum wage will become a nightmare. We need to stand against increasing the minimum wage.

Douglas PapaHallowell