Devalue everyday workers

The GOP frequently and loudly trumpets that raising the minimum wage is bad for business. Their chant has something to do with raising prices and causing companies to close. They have such a "terrible fear" -- the words used by Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post -- that they are working hard to insure poor people remain poor. Their latest efforts are to push for legislation in various states that forbids cities and counties from raising minimum wage rates.

Doesn't the salary of Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, at $78 million also cause prices to rise? Doesn't the $28 million paid to James Skinner, head of McDonald's reduce shareholder dividends? Perhaps the $31 million to the head of CVS Larry Merlo has no effect of pharmacy prices?

The AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch team calculated that the average CEO gets paid 331 times the average worker. Is a CEO worth 331 times that of a heart surgeon who is saving peoples lives? Are CEOs 331 times more important than the fireman who enters a burning house to save a life? Are they 331 times more valuable than the teacher who nurtures a shy child and a faltering student? The GOP says yes, because

Republicans are so enthralled with the 1 percent who write supersized campaign checks that they devalue the contributions of everyday workers to the welfare of America.