Think about it. I see the privilege of not working vs. being provided for daily by government programs. I see a trend where one will work minimum wage so health, food, living assistance thru government programs can be continually be provided thusly not even attempting to move above the minimum wage mark.
Raise the minimum wage you say? Yeah, think where that will go. It will cause a bigger upset than what it is now. There is more to the problem than just raising the minimum wage and just raising the minimum wage will not solve the balance without exploring the other components tied to it.

Right now the burden is on the government to fulfill the gap between what is considered a “decent” wage to accommodate what our society today considers “enough to survive”. What is that value? Does working 40 hours a week decent enough to have one child, two, three? Does working 40 hours a week allow cigarettes, eating out, cell phone, cable. What is that value? We fail to realize that sure let’s raise minimum wage (which I have nothing against) but to double it? That means a company will have to double it’s salary for each position above the minimum wage mark. Its just not economically feasible and will have a very adverse effect on consumerism in this country. And discussing other industrialized countries, their pay structure is definitely different but it is also bringing in the social benefits such as health care, child care, and education. Additionally look at the tax rate that these other countries’ citizen’s are paying back to enjoy this higher wage. Again the issue is, what is considered a “decent” wage and what is that value? Should my “decent” wage based on no children be the same as someone with one, two, three children? Or do I just have “extra” money because I have no children, don’t smoke, don’t have cable, don’t eat out, and perhaps live in a less affluent neighborhood to afford to live and pay my heat? There is a fifty-fifty responsibility here and as I mentioned before I’d rather see requirements for all companies to provide health-care, child-care assistance, and education assistance to retain it’s employees and move them up to higher paying positions. Seems pretty “decent” to me and more of a feasible solution than just doubling our minimum wage without considering the other components.