LETTER: Businesses have an obligation to pay a ‘living wage’

In his March 10 letter to the editor, John Severson gave us a lot of “facts” about the minimum wage so that we could have an informed opinion. Missing from all of his facts was this: More than 19 million American’s work full-time jobs that pay less than $12 per hour and still qualify for government assistance. That means taxpayer dollars are subsidizing employers who don’t pay a decent wage.

Mr. Severson, not familiar with the origins of the minimum wage, then tells us to not confuse the minimum wage with a living wage. The initial creator of the minimum wage, FDR, did not share that view when he said: “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country … and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of decent living.”

I do not understand why so many people are so intent on devaluing the work of their fellow citizens.