Problem is it wont affect just tacos workers near the new minimum are not going to keep working construction in blazing sun lifting heavy crap. When they could stand in air conditioning and count out peoples change for the same wage.

Across the board all daily necessitys rents/housing clothing food all of it will raise in price. Only thing that changes is how competitive we are in all markets.

Cost to shelf is biggest determination for most products items. Shipping is the largest supplement to our economy. We produce and use many American product and export them because the low cost to get them to store. Not the low cost to make however as we increase that cost we import more export less.

And all for nothing because "still" broke because increased income came with increased cost.

Now it comes down to the same people less will be employed with less export more imports topped of with twice as much cost for employee. Either incentivizing efficiency or automation.

The reason why wages for lowest earners have been stuck is simple. First illegal immigration people not in the system therefore easily exploited. Used to a lower standard of living so poverty wages are cool. Second big thing is with this continuous and massive flow of low skill workers. We have been shedding losing these jobs. Simply due to efficiency and outsourcing. Every year there is more people fighting for same job and less jobs.

Its basic negotiations with hundreds of people lined up to replace you why would you pay more than min wage. Honestly couple min wage jobs I worked every one of them had more applicants each month than employees.

One of the ones that pops out to me as a example of the applicants vs jobs = wage. Was North Dakota during oil boom they had mcdonalds nearing 20 bucks a hour.

Because every single business was seeing increased demand and more businesses were popping up. And there was alot of high paying alternatives in oil.

Its supply demand simple as that arbitrarily raising lowest earners legal minimum. Will just counter with inflation till people are earning on par with productivity/value they bring.

We could start with training programs semi skilled labor is seeing huge shortages. Because either people are going to college or not most people don't even consider the inbetween option.

Address immigration by making sure employers are hiring legal residents. As the supply of workers becomes comparable to the amount of work available they will see wage increases greater than inflation as they are providing more value.

But trying to artificially manipulate value by arbitrarily dictating value as x wont work. You have to do it by actually adding value.