I tend to disagree. If a 15 dollar minimum was imposed all the fast food would become more automated with smart machines. The would still sell the same crap and at reasonable price. The computer driven machinery would take the place of most workers. Unemployment would increase greatly.
I worked for minimum wage as a youth. I went to college and acquired skills that the market place paid many times the minimum wage. Minimum wage is simply the chance to become part of the market place. If you are ambitious and become skilled the market will pay you well.
My first degree in Geology rewarded me well. I acquired that degree by working in jobs that paid minimum wage. In 1982 my income was equal and superior to doctors. The oilfield said, “go find oil” and we did, unfortunately we found to damn much. In 1983 I no longer had any marketable skills. We found to damn much oil and prices collapsed.
I sold my house and airplane and went back to school again at 35 years of age and became a pharmacist.
Our great nation will allow you to become anything you desire if you are willing to work for it. I achieved these goals starting at minimum wage. A minimum wage that is above market demand for labor insures greater unemployment.
All of the big franchise operations have lab work going on with automation as a big part of the future. Within a decade, I think you will start to see McDonalds where there are only three or four employees per shift, and most everything done by automation. Other than the manager, some clean-up kid, a guy to reload the hardware, and a repair technician....that’ll likely be the new future of McDonalds. A whole generation of $15-an-hour wage earners will simply just walk out the door.
The lesser companies....will be ten to twenty years behind McDonalds but they will all eventually go to the model. I think the same pattern will occur with the pharmacy/drug store operations....with pharmacist coming in for four hours a day to load the machines, and maybe just one clerk to sit and answer questions.
Inspirational, but with inflation, it may not be possible anymore. But, where there’s a will.........