There are 3 things I would like to say about the push to increase the Federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.
1) When I got my first job, the wage was $4.00 and went up to $4.25. It was a big deal. It was enough. This was only 20 years ago. Granted I was in high school and living at home, but a minimum wage job was mostly for high schoolers so we could get a taste of the "real world" and pay for the gas in the cars we borrowed from our parents, or take dates out to the movies and not have to ask for money from those same parents. In a few years, what will we cry is a fair wage? When will it stop?
2) A company I used to work for pays just above or about minimum wage and some people of the public were appalled by this. I had been told numerous times we deserved higher wages for what we did. But it wasn't up to management to increase those wages. It was up to the owners. And they weren't budging. In the full 3 years I worked there, I only got 2 wage increases, and both were in the first year I started. Every time someone asked for a raise, the answer was the same: "If I could, I would. But 'they' won't give us more money to do so." I understood. I loved the people I worked for. If the Federal minimum wage goes up to $15 an hour, then those managers will have to cut hours and possibly jobs to stay under the budget they've been given. Currently, the wage is around $7.50 per hour. So if the staff is at 22 people, then the increase will likely cut that down to 11-15 people. This means those left will be over-worked and understaffed. Which leads to unhappy employees. Which leads to people quitting (possibly), or sub-par service for the public. This company believes in happy employees makes for good public experiences.
3) I have a dear friend who is working her dream job. She needed to have a 4 year degree to get it, and she came with experience. She is currently making around that $15 an hour wage. Raising the minimum wage to match it, negates her degree and the importance of the position. Her wages won't go up because minimum wage did. How can we say "you need a degree for this position, but you'll get the same wage as that kid who works at McDonald's down the street"? What's the point in working hard towards a degree for a good paying job when you can just get any job that pays minimum wage and doesn't require a degree? People aren't going to aim for higher education if they can "get by" without it. Colleges lose students, so they raise tuition (which will always go up no matter what happens with wages). Tuition becomes so high that those who wanted to go to college, can't or choose not to. They get a minimum wage job instead that doesn't require a degree. After all, they can get paid a living wage of $15 an hour without all that hard work for a degree from an institution that is astronomically unaffordable because the fees are too high.
I know that not all high paying jobs require a degree. 2 people I care deeply about have such jobs. And their companies probably don't have minimum wage entry level positions. But having a degree says you've had a lot of schooling and you know your stuff. And it would be an insult to those people to have to say "You know your stuff, but you're still only going to get what the drop out next to you is going to get. If you want this job, you'll take what we give you."
I enjoyed the job I had. I had the experience, the degree, the passion. But I got what the high school kids got: the same wage and entry level. My degree and experience helped get me the position, but (I guess) they weren't enough to advance to the position I had worked for. It pained my boss to see me go, and I was sad to say goodbye. A higher wage would not have kept me, though (sorry, Diane). Utilizing the degree I have and allowing me to move up would have.