>First, just happened across this today: http://www.salon.com/2016/04/26/one_of_the_most_popular_arguments_against_raising_the_minimum_wage_is_getting_demolished/. The gist is that, so far, there's no sign in Seattle of increases in minimum wage raising prices or closing businesses.
>

We have a few rules here in "Casa KG". No dessert before dinner, no rap music, no buying cooked food at gas stations, and no quoting economics from sources like Salon, HuffPo (and double no-no to quoting Ezra Klein). :)

Since last April, in Seattle, the city’s employment has fallen by more than 11,000, the # of unemployed workers has risen by nearly 5,000, and Seattle's jobless rate has increased by more than 1 percentage point. This is from employment data for the city of Seattle.

Additionally, employment in neighboring areas increased.

http://www.aei.org/publication/early-evidence-suggests-that-seattles-radical-experiment-might-be-a-model-for-the-rest-of-the-nation-not-to-follow


Here's an article from the LA Times on his it has hit the apparel industry. I worked for an apparel client in the Spring City area 2 decades ago and I know how hard these kinds of laws are going to be for certain industries.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garment-manufacturing-la-20160416-story.html


And finally, another example of union hypocrisy:
http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/30/california-labor-union-that-fought-for-15-minimum-wage-now-wants-an-exemption/


I would agree in the abstract that the current $7.25 (or whatever it is) is very low. But this 15 dollar mandate is foolish economics and doesn't work. I don't normally quote Ronald Reagan because I didn't care much for him a president, but he was right when he stated that a certain political party was very good at spending the money of others.

And I didn't even cover the argument about "paying people so low a wage that it forces them into welfare which others pay for" - that is a flawed argument of cause and effect and little more than a social justice talking point.