you can strike a balance

without fucking over the lower class completely

There's alot of variables to a wage of an employee

I couldnt list them all

"if you can't pay people enough to live maybe you shouldn't be in business"
but you said if you cant pay your employees a livable wage you shouldnt be a business.
there are a lot of for example family owned bakers that have a few employees and make enough to pay the owner's bills and the paychecks of its employees. If 15 dollars was implemented to be a minimum wage what would stop the businesses from letting go half their employees to pay the livable wage.

Wouldnt this just leave some Americans without jobs?

well it's a complex issue people make the mistake of thinking this is basic economics when it's not

Seattle has $15 minimum wage so just look at them for example

I think more likely is a reduction in hours and understaffing

and if it's a family business you have more kids to slave away for free obviously

but yeah even with a mom and pop your wages are a part of your expenses, not the whole pie

from the perspective of the employee it's their whole pie

but yeah that argument is made a lot and I think it's shit because it's a scarcity mindset

if you're in business you should be making money hand over fist sweet profit

why the fuck do you have a bakery if you're breaking even

you should close anyways you're wasting time

if the only reason your business is alive is because you pay your employees less than what they need to survive then maybe your business is the one that should die

Well thatz what the whole workers rights movement was all about in the late 1800's

Also

Its not exactly an ideal job to keep at mcdonalds

Because its more of a teenager starting job

So no shit your not going to be paid the most

Because anyone can get that job

also a common argument but it's wrong

So how is it wrong?

90.7% of people on minimum wage are over the age of 20

I think its interesting how you brought up Seattle as an example of a 15 dollar minimum wage. This only applies to companies who have over 500 employees. Meaning if you are below that criteria 15 dollars wouldnt matter. But I used a bakery as an example of how a 15 dollar minimum wage could effect small businesses. But my whole premise is, it causes less competition for those unappealing jobs like trash collecting or disgusting low paying jobs.

over half are educated

Are you talking about worldwide? Or just the US?

US

I highly doubt that number is right

I don't think there is much competition for trash collecting as it is

If it was then the us wouldnt be the top richest nation in the world

pretty sure custodians are fairly well paid considering the job

Probably about 30% are paid minimum

it's not $7/hr

increasing the pay for collecting trash doesn't make people want to do the job less...

Well take a look a full time garbage collector vs a full time working at mcdonalds
mcdonalds full time salary is around 22k a year compared to a garbage collector which is 37k a year
sure many people might not want those disgusting jobs or there even being a massive competition for it. But there is competition for those higher paying jobs

Theres alot of competition nowadays for gaming for example

It's super fierce

And like