About minimum wage

[johan]

There might be a slight increase, but it wouldn't be as much as the increase in wages.

Competition keeps costs down as well.

It might not be as much. But if it ends up being 95% as much, then what have really solved?

I'm no economist but I'm pretty sure I understand a few thing that few seem to realize in these conversations. Increasing the minimum wage does not just increase wages for minimum wage jobs. It also forces an increase in the wages of lots of other jobs. 

I work in trucking. It is a thankless profession which often requires a lifestyle chock full of downsides. Long hours, lots of regulation and oversight, not much respect from public or peers. Pay is often so so but for most who do it, its their best option for being able to make the money they do. In lots of markets, many local trucking jobs pay in the range of $12-$17/hour. Over the road trucking pays by the mile not the hour but often by the time you add it up, you're not taking home much more than $15-$19/hour and your away all the time.

Now lets raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. Why would anyone subject themselves to the downsides of driving a truck for $12-$17/hour when they can stock shelves at Walmart or flip burgers for virtually the same money?

So that means the going rate of local trucking jobs has to go up. Way up. And if the going rate of local trucking goes up, then the more lucrative rate of over the road trucking must also go up. And if the cost of truck drivers goes up, the cost of EVERYTHING goes up. 

So great, the guy schlepping away at Subway is making $15/hour now instead of $8.25 or whatever it is. Right now the average Subway sale adds about $7 to the cash drawer. When everyone is making $15/hr and the average Subway sale is adding $12 or $14 to the cash drawer, what have we really solved?