>Minimum wage is 7.25 an hour and has been since 2009. It’s been a long time since some have gotten a raise. 13 years to be exact.
And yet the fast food places are begging for people at $14/hr and down the street *dishwasher* is on a restaurant’s placard for $13/hr. The only people who get a raise if the minimum wage jumps are union workers whose wages are auto-pegged to (something times) that figure.
So. Private businesses can give whatever wage they want or that used to be a conservative principle.