[Cheburashka]

If this statement is true, then the effect of the increase of minimum wage should be negligible.
There must be something more to this being such a big-deal.
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The minimum wage is a benchmark. If it goes up 20%, all the union guys are supposed to get a 20% increase in their wages, so they stay ahead of the minimum wage guys. See how it works?

[Jorge]

The minimum wage is a benchmark. If it goes up 20%, all the union guys are supposed to get a 20% increase in their wages, so they stay ahead of the minimum wage guys. See how it works?

Which explains why unions are disappearing.

[stylin19a]

thanks..i didn't know that

[dufekin]

Very few Americans fork in labor unions anymore. Suppose that a union "journeyman" receives $51.50/hour (ten times the minimum wage and close to $100k/yr) to do work worth $30/hour on the free (non-union) market. Union demands $72.50/hour given new minimum wage. Unless the union does significantly better work than the non-union worker, employer already has labor cost troubles. If union prevails in this dispute, employer goes bankrupt. Union then loses members and associated dues, further weakening union. Non-union workers see unions destroying jobs and avoid them whenever possible. The union issues with minimum wage could wreak particular havoc in certain heavily unionized, mostly blue states. The wage itself will hit many low-cost mostly red states hard.

Given that we already have a minimum wage, we should increase it regularly with inflation to avoid these ridiculous shocks, but that's a story for another day.