The Outrageous Truth About A $12 Minimum Wage And Your Grocery Bill

[JoeyT]

13. All wages tend to go up when the minimum is raised.

Just as an example: In my field, there are a handful of groups that make a few dollars an hour more than minimum wage for hot, hard, brutal work. If they can make that much anywhere, they're not going to show up. No one is going to tie rebar or build scaffold for 12 bucks an hour when they can make the same thing flipping burgers. So they're going to have to bump their pay up to convince people to show up. When that happens, the skilled trades men and women are going to pitch a fit because starter level is paying a few bucks an hour less than jobs that require five years of experience, are considerably more dangerous, and have a ton more responsibility. So their pay goes up. And on up the chain it goes.

Raising the minimum wage is one of the perfect examples of the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats.