Raise loggers’ wages

The logging industry wants “to hook” more young people into being loggers (Page One, BDN, Jan. 7-8). The industry’s strategy is to get high schools to train loggers for them, then subsidize employers to hire the graduates.

Training young people is a good idea. But the program isn’t working out too well. Six of the seven students they have “hooked” left their logging jobs a short time later.

I wonder why? Try paying a decent wage and the problem will be solved. That’s the way the market works. The logging industry pays the market price for land, equipment and management, but apparently thinks it shouldn’t have to pay the market price for loggers.

Lots of young Mainers would like to work in the woods in spite of it being an insecure, tough, dangerous job with few, if any, benefits. They just don’t want to work for the poverty wages the industry pays. They can do better elsewhere. This is called the free enterprise system.

The industry’s claims that it pays well doesn’t make it true. The market determines if a job pays well – not the employer. A shortage of workers means the job isn’t paying the market price.

Quit whining and raise the pay.

John Alexander

Old Town