Businesses have no right to exploit workers for their profit

In a recent letter to the editor about how restrictive the minimum wage laws are, Gunnar Unneland writes about “The right for business to profit.” It a right-wing falsehood about America.

Only if a business produces a service or item that is wanted and is able to pay its workers a living wage and pay its suppliers, taxes, and other expenses then it earned its profit, but it is not a right. If it is lacking any than it doesn’t deserve one.

Sadly, some employers would like the beginning employee to work for free, like some early apprentices in Colonial days, to prove they are worth it. Thankfully we have a minimum wage (although some employers think of as a maximum wage). Yet even It has not kept up with inflation on rents, transportation, food and clothes. The government is the only organization big enough to force companies to pay, so there we have the need for minimum wage.

Charles H. Best

Duvall