Concerning the Jan. 31 editorial about no wage increases for state employees:

I would like to ask you: Where you work, what would you do if your employer said “Sorry, no raises for you this year.” And what if over the last three years you only received a 7 percent increase — that is for all three years, not each year. Next, you find out that your wage is 15 percent or more below what the private businesses pay their employees for the same amount of work or job title. (Compare that with Boeing getting 4 percent or more each year.) And what was the minimum wage increase from 2008 to 2009? More than 0 percent!

I think you would be finding another job.

The raise increase for my husband’s job would have been 2 percent. Yes, only 2 percent, and actually last year he didn’t get one either because his raise was negated with an increase in health insurance costs and an increase into his retirement, which he did not have a choice.

So, that means over the last three years he has received only a 5 percent increase in pay. I believe cost of living has gone up way more than that.

For those people that earn more than the average of income for Washington state (like governors, state superintendents, other six-figure income employees anywhere), they should not get an increase.)

You are saying that those people responsible for building roads, teaching Washington’s children and safety on our roads do not deserve raises. Maybe you should try living like them too.

Diane Quick, Federal Way