Most union contracts have a clause that gives automatic raises in the event of a rise in the minimum wage. That’s exactly what is pushing these ‘reforms’ to the minimum wage - union employees, having reached the point where job actions cause closures and who are unable to wrangle any more wages at the negotiating table are instead going all out to raise the minimum wage and thus raise union wages.
There you go - it isn’t to help the ‘working poor’, it is to help the unions.
A friend of mine who owns a business simply said, if Obamacare is still here in 2015, he is shutting his business and moving to Florida to retire.
When you speak of automatic increases, don’t forget the government. Prime reason for increasing the minimum wage is that it will increase taxes without passing a tax increase.
...and here, I thought I was making funny!