The following was written on October 2, 1998 in response to a letter on the editorial page Titled - Raise Minimum Wage To Ten Bucks an Hour - by Luann Bell of Bon Air. I was named Correspondent of the Day for this letter. Those parts in brackets were edited out by the newspaper.

Richmond Times-Dispatch
P.O. Box 85333
Richmond, VA 23293-0001
Attn: Editor of Editorial Page

Dear Sir,

{I trust all has been well with you since last I wrote}. Once again I find myself compelled to respond to the lack of logical thought expressed by one of the recent submissions to the editorial page.

Specifically I refer to the letter from Luann Bell titled, "Raise Minimum Wage to Ten Bucks an Hour", as an owner of a supermarket in the city of Richmond I would like to provide Ms. Bell with an education in economics.

{As a neighborhood supermarket in southside} we used to employ several teenagers as baggers. After school or during the summer months these youngsters were able to receive the work place experience that they could not get at school as well as make some money for their own bank accounts. As the minimum wage began to increase by leaps and bounds we were faced with a dilemma. {Can we afford to keep several people employed whose job requirements were so limited?} From a financial standpoint it was impractical to keep them employed.

Therefore we had to let them all go and keep only those persons who could perform several tasks. We now employ only adults who can drive the delivery van, ring a register, bag, clean, work stock, etc. After all, if we MUST pay them higher wages then we must also get as much out of them {in the way of abilities} as possible. But what does this do for the young people who need those entry level jobs to gain the experience necessary to move up in the job market later in life!?

It is worth noting that the minimum wage is not and never was meant to be a living wage. It is an ENTRY LEVEL WAGE for those getting started in the job market. If {you} one wishes to earn more {you need to educate yourself (stay in school)} he may stay in school and then prove {yourself} himself to be valuable enough to your employer to be paid more. It’s called a free market economy {maybe you’ve heard of it}.

{To further expand on Ms. Bell’s idea of a minimum of $10 per hour, why stop there? After all who can realistically live on only that wage? I propose that a law be passed forcing all employers to pay each employee $100,000 per year. This way we can rest assured that every working member of society can live comfortably. After all we know that those mean, greedy corporations and businesses can afford that, can’t they?}

{Wake up and smell the coffee folks. What we are talking about is Socialism. When the government can tell a private business what the minimum they may pay someone is, how long before they start telling us how much is too much to pay someone? Let’s return to a free market and let the people, not the government, decide how much a person is worth to an employer.}

Sincerely,