In 1914, long before the federal government or the Territory of Hawai'i established minimum-wage laws, one of America's most brilliant entrepreneurs established his own "minimum wage" program for the most sound of economic reasons.

At a time when the average wage for autoworkers was $2.34 for a nine-hour shift, Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, voluntarily paid his workers $5 and shaved off an hour from the workday, establishing the first eight-hour workday. "There is one rule for the industrialist: Make the best quality of goods possible, at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible," Ford said.

Instead of being praised for his corporate social responsibility, Ford was scorned by the business world. The Wall Street Journal called it an economic crime, but it was Ford who had the last laugh.

Ford understood what has come to be known as the Labor Theory of Value. That is, by lowering his cost per car and raising the wages of employees, more people were able to purchase cars. His cars. More than that, by providing a livable wage, he raised employee morale, increased employee productivity and inspired employees' pride in ownership of their work. Too often, the business community points only to the bottom line and underestimates the role that employees play in making or breaking a business. Businesses must recognize the tremendous contributions workers have made to this country's growth and prosperity over the past 200 years.

Those who are opposed to giving the lowest wage earners in the state a minimum wage, such as Cliff Slater in his Sept. 26 commentary, "Pay workers only what they're really worth," argue that somehow increasing the minimum wage will drive business out of business. This argument is not new, nor is it supportable.

In fact, the opposite is true. There are a number of studies that prove that an increase in the minimum wage benefits society as a whole, and that is what the Hawai'i Legislature intended when it voted to increase the minimum wage to $6.75 in 2006 and $7.25 in the following year.

Slater's claim that raising the minimum wage will raise the unemployment rate among those who are the least employable is misguided. On the national level, history shows that raising the minimum wage has had a positive impact on job creation. Congress last increased the federal minimum to $5.15 in 1997. In the four years following, the economy experienced its strongest growth in more than three decades. More than 11 million new jobs were created, including 10 million service-industry jobs, more than 1.5 million retail jobs, of which nearly 600,000 were restaurant jobs.

The first minimum wage in Hawai'i was set in 1942, at 25 cents an hour for O'ahu, and 20 cents an hour for the Neighbor Islands, with a 48-hour maximum workweek. Since then, Hawai'i's minimum wage has been raised 22 times as a means for employees and their families to keep up with inflation and the cost of living, and each time we saw that businesses did not go out of business.

It is also misleading of Slater to emphasize the impact of the minimum wage increase on teenagers, who already have a high unemployment rate, or on the unqualified and unmotivated, essentially the "unemployable."

Instead, let's look at whom the minimum wage will impact the most. If Hawai'i follows national statistics, 71 percent of those who earn a minimum wage are adults, not 18-year-olds; 58 percent are women who are the breadwinners for their families; and 46 percent work full time on a minimum wage. The average minimum-wage worker brings home more than half of his or her family's income.

And even with an increase in the minimum wage, these people are still living below the poverty line unless they are working multiple, full-time jobs. Minimum-wage workers are unable to afford adequate housing in any area of this country, let alone Hawai'i.

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy has supported legislation at the federal level to increase the minimum wage, and according to his office, the number of Americans in poverty has increased by 4.3 million since President Bush took office. Nearly 36 million people live in poverty today, including 13 million children. Keeping the minimum wage unacceptably low is a key part of the problem. Here are more troubling statistics: