Here is my take on increased minimum wages. At one point in my life, I owned 3 QSR franchises so I had quite a bit of experience with minimum wage workers.

And here is my theory: At every level of compensation there are workers who are overpaid and those who are underpaid. So if I own a business that employees minimum wage workers and I hire workers in a minimum wage and then all of a sudden the government requires me to pay $15 instead of $8 this is what I think is going to happen.

1) I would be a lot pickier on who I hire. I can now get $15/hour workers. So that worker who was busting their ass doing a more labor intensive job for $12 is now part of my potential labor pool. When I owned my QSR franchises, I had a daytime crew of higher paid workers. Six of them could do what 8-9 of the minimum wage crews could do, so my overall labor cost per hour would be similar. And that would happen. The current workers who aren't worth minimum wage would no longer have a job because companies would hire fewer, but better workers.

2) Companies would invest a lot more in technology. We have a chain of convenience stores in my area called Sheetz. The sell food made to order like any other fast food restaurant. But instead of having a worker take the order, they have 4 touchscreens set up and you order your own food. They work really well and are easy to use. Easily eliminates 1-2 workers per shift. And I have seen McDonald's that have automatic fry dispensers that can take the fries from the bags, but them in the baskets and put them in the frier. Easily eliminates a worker.

Just my thoughts on this. Fire away, but remember technology puts a lot of food on the tables of posters here, so be aware of that before you attack it.