>>>I don’t get the minimum wage thing though. If people aren’t making a living wage how do they survive.
High minimum wages keep out teenagers and hard to employ workers, increasing unemployment in the low end (starter) jobs. Think of illegal alien dishwashers who come and go, or the crop picking jobs.
And some union wage contracts have been pegged to a multiple of minimum wages.
Government should not try to set market wages. Such actions drive out marginal businesses and shut off learning benefits for marginal workers. If minimum wage laws are good, then they should set them for $1,000,000. Obviously, no one could afford workers at that level... they also can’t afford them at $7.25 (Texas for 2012).
Yet some people actually have to survive and pay bills on minimum wage.