Originally Posted by Rochard

This should be simple math... If you significantly raise the cost of labor, the price of EVERYTHING will go up. Using a restaurant as an example.... Not only does the cost of labor go up, but does the cost of printing menus - because the company that prints menus just saw a huge increase in labor costs, and has to pass them on. All of the products the restaurant buys - spoons and forks and plates - are bought from a local restaurant supply store in town, and those products have just now shot up because they too have added labor costs. And so on and so on.

But that is just the start of the problem. The people who charge $20 an hour for their services will say will have to raise their prices because all of the products they use to run their business just got more expensive.

In the end this doesn't help the people making minimum wage because all of their prices just went up - not only does the cost of the fast food they buy go up, but so does their auto repairs (the chick that answers the phone there just got a fat raise) and so does their rent (because landscapers and pool service cost a lot more") and so on. Everyone will be charging more because everything will cost more.

And that's great for one city - they are all making more, but everything costs more. Sounds great, but... What about the tourists? Tourists doesn't want to visit a town where hamburgers / hotel rooms / car rentals / parking costs 30% more on average than other cities.

This just doesn't sound like a good idea to me.