Originally posted on 02/12/2014:

It doesn't matter - you can raise minimum wage which just increases the cost of goods sold. As costs go up, so must prices. In the end, the "real wage" that people make won't change. They will be able to afford just as much as they could today, just will have more dollars to pay for the more dollars things cost. In the very short term while prices catch up, the minimum wage earner will have more spending power but that goes away after a few years and we are back to needing to increase it again.