Economists off base on minimum wage

I don’t agree with Cecil Bohanon and Bill Styring’s take on how a higher minimum wage would affect the economy [Raising minimum wage takes employment toll, Aug. 10].

Let’s say Will needs 10 employees to produce the 10,000 widgets he sells each week. After all, Will doesn’t have people on payroll doing nothing. Each employee is very important to his operation. If Will does not replace each employee as they leave, he can no long produce the 10,000 widgets he has sold.

He is only producing 7,000 widgets with seven employees now. Will is losing customers, and his income is falling. Will is soon going to be out of business.

If only he had paid a living wage to his employees. Will could have, should have raised the price of his widgets from 13 cents each to 17.5 cents each. He could have paid his employees a living wage, and together they could have built the widget work to 100,000 widgets a week. More money and a bright future for everyone, including several guys named Fred.

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Tim Harmon
Indianapolis