First off, "McDonald's" Corporate has almost no minimum wage employees McDonald's lobbies on behalf of its franchisees. That one of its core functions. The distinction is irrelevant to this discussion.

If the minimum goes up, companies like walmart will see there average wage go up, even if they have a minority of employees making just the minimum. An increase in the minimum will drive wages up across the board (this is a feature, not a bug). Walmart is very much interested in stopping this from happening.

The largest supporters and donors to raising the minimum wage are usually unions. Union employees make well above minimum wage, but it is in their interest to force non-union competitors to pay higher wages so they can compete. This is completely true. But I don't see how unions driving up wages for all employees, even those who aren't union members is a bad thing. Wages have stagnated in this country, and part of the problem is unions have declined and thus no longer have the power to drive up wages for everyone.

Make no mistake, huge companies will not foot the bill for wage increases. You will. Walmart runs on a gross margin of about 3 to 5%. There is no more room to factor wage increases in to that profit. Something else has to be cut or prices have to be increased. Hmm, If gross margin is 3-5%, sure seems like there's room to me. What do I care if Walmart margins drop to 1-3%?

40% of minimum wage employees work for companies with fewer than 50 employees. 10% for companies between 50 and 100 employees. When you start getting to the mega corporations that are household names, it is a very small percentage. Thank you. I don't doubt this is true, but again, even if walmart pays an average of 12$, that average will go up if the minimum is raised. That is part of point, to encourage wage growth.