Dear Editor:

The legislative bill concerning raising the minimum wage in Maine, originated by “progressive” political groups, is justifiably moribund and will wither away because it stands on baseless notions and has no declared principles or reason attached to it.

The whole idea of enslaving small business to a contrived pay amount is innately erroneous and unconstitutional at best. First of all, government at all levels has no actual right or authority to tell businesses how much to pay its employees. We all just blindly follow and obey this canard.

Businesses across the country hire young, inexperienced individuals at an entry level wage that is commensurate with what they bring with them when they walk through the door. This wage is not and never was designed to “live on” nor does it create any leverage for a demand of an increase in that wage. Most folks just entering the work force have not yet established the workplace basics to be able to demand more than what can be afforded them, nor do they deserve it.

Incompetent politicians influenced by these phony “progressive” groups, such as the Maine Center for Economic Policy, then enter the debate. Look at their credentials; most members have never owned a business in their lives. Most come out of the “parasitic” public sector. The MCEP uses trite little phrasings to implement this nonsense, such as, “we want to give Maine workers a raise,” “to create a higher level of dignity,” “equal pay,” or “we want to reward hard work.”

I demand to know, by what authority? They speak of hard work as if it were an accomplishment and demand congratulations, when all the while hard work is just something that needs to be done by workers at all levels of pay. They are wielding untempered weapons and do not know business from their own behinds. This bill needs to pick itself up and blow away in the wind.

Dave Gregg

Southport