Dear Editor:

In the minimum wage letter of April 23, 2015, about the only accurate statement is that the Maine minimum wage is not likely to change. Beyond that, most of the statements in the letter are not accurate.

That small business is "enslaved" by a minimum wage is not a fact. Taxpayers subsidize businesses (small and large) who pay less than a subsistence hourly wage by having to pay for health care (MaineCare), and similar welfare programs for their employees ("the working poor"). Raising the minimum wage to a subsistence level would move millions of working people off these programs.

Saying the minimum wage is "unconstitutional" is not correct. The Supreme Court, in its 1937 West Coast Hotel Company v. Parrish decision, ruled that a minimum wage was constitutional. This was followed by Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that established the federal minimum wage and other labor laws.

The minimum wage is not intended solely for young and inexperience people. In fact, using the $10.10 proposed federal minimum wage, the current average age of people earning less than $10.10 is 34.

It is incorrect to say that the minimum wage was not intended to be an amount to "live on." The intent of the federal minimum wage was to raise wages above the subsistence level for workers who previously were "ill-nourished, ill-clad, and ill housed" and to "under-pin the whole wage structure."

As final points, separate from the letter: in current 2015 dollars, the minimum wage reached a level of $10.34 in 1968 and increasing the minimum wage has always ended up creating more jobs simply due to the infusion of cash into the economy — not tax dollars spent subsidizing low paying businesses.

Mike Loewe

Boothbay