Before the Legislature gets too bent out of shape debating the merits, or demerits, of raising the state minimum wage beyond the federal level, from $5.15 to $5.40, it should pause long enough to reach some agreement on just what that measly 25 cents is supposed to do.

Is it supposed to guarantee a livable wage for a single-income family of four? Or is it supposed to do that in combination with a variety of public assistance programs and tax breaks? Or is each family to have two minimum wage-earners and access to affordable child care? Or is it just to make entry-level jobs attractive enough so those joining the workforce gain the experience and habits needed to move on to better things?

No one knows because lawmakers, in Augusta or Washington, have never sat down and worked out exactly what the minimum wage is to accomplish. As a result, the minimum wage not only fails to lift anyone out of poverty, it may in fact provide a convenient distraction from other, more important issues.

An alarming portion of Maine’s 23,000 minimum wagers, some 30 percent, are single mothers. Will a lousy $10-a-week raise (before taxes) mean the state can continue to allow far too many fathers to duck their child-support responsibilities? Maine has gotten tougher in that regard, but obviously still not tough enough.

Will a lousy $10 a week raise come at the expense of much-needed benefits, such as health insurance and child care? Will it provide lawmakers with a excuse not to expand the earned income tax credit or the exemption for dependents? Will it provide a cheap way out of dealing substantively with the growing income gap, the increasing plight of the working poor and the continuing economic decline of rural Maine? These and other nagging questions persist because a complex problem requiring a comprehensive solution gets the piecemeal approach instead.

This is what is known about the minimum wage: Its buying power has dropped substantially from a peak in 1968, from $6.50 (in 1995 dollars) to about $5 today. Whatever good the minimum wage was doing 30 years ago, it’s doing much less of it now.

And this is what can be reasonably assumed about the contemplated increase: It will not materially improve the lot of Maine’s working poor; it will not drive any Maine businesses worth keeping across the border to New Hampshire; and it will not prevent any new businesses worth attracting from locating here.

Raising the minimum wage by a quarter will do no real harm and $10 a week is $10 that single working mom didn’t have before. If the Legislature wants to forge ahead and approve this two-bit proposal, so be it. Just so it doesn’t mistake this for doing anything that really helps.