The truth that the Left does not want to admit is that all labor is not equal and some is worth more compensation than others. Trying to make that untrue by raising minimum wage well above what a business is willing to pay an unskilled worker entering into a tight work force for the first time will only make it more likely that large subgroups of people will not find work. Their solution is to keep raising the minimum wage. There is also the whole matter of the costs of goods and services going up in correlation to increases.
The minimum base income is not connected to labor and it would be a set amount. If a person wanted to increase that income he would either have to create his own job or work for somebody else. One big reason I support it is because I think it would really help families. For example it could be used so that a young mother did not have to put her children in daycare. It could be used to help purchase health insurance or pay for private school. It might mean a family could move from a dangerous neighborhood to a safer one. I see this largely as a benefit to the middle class.
My biggest concern Is that the government will demand it go to non-citizens including illegal aliens. That would be a non-starter for me. I would also object if it was regarded as just another welfare program on top of existing programs. It should replace those programs or at least lead to sharp reductions in them.
The biggest incentive for the government to raise the minimum wage is to add to the coffers for income taxes and most importantly, Social Security/Medicare taxes (there is no refund on those payments, and no Earned Income Credit). Living in a high-cost part of the country (the NYC metro area), we have local and state governments dead-set against reducing the workfare so common here (government jobs); rather that cut costs, they just want to transfer those costs onto employers - and the outcome is predictable: Employers and those workers who can flee to lower-cost areas, especially those without a gaggle of government workers (demanding salaries/benfits far beyond anything offered in the private sector) and unemployable Welfarians seeking sugar daddies to pay for their golden ticket bastards’ housing, schools, etc.