I don't know about the illegal worker but for the moment I'll keep my thoughts on that to myself...
However, minimum wages don't apply to farm workers - they have a different system for them.
I'm not saying that being one step above slave labor is a good thing. What I am saying is that when minimum wage goes up to 9.50, I won't be able to afford to take my kids to Wendy's [like I did last night b/c they did a GREAT job sitting at Walmart while we got the oil changed/battery checked] because instead of costing me $6, it would cost $10 and my oil change would have cost me $35 instead of $22 and all the other costs have gone up accordingly. My husband and I will not get raises, but all of our goods that we buy will go up in price and our real buying power will go WAY down with a 50%ish raise in minimum wage. Why? Because we've worked our tails off to get an education and a job that pays [currently] well above minimum wage. Our bosses would already have to give considerable raises to employees that do make minimum or less than the new minimum. They won't be able to afford to give us raises as well.
Just guessing that the real buying power of 95% of Americans would go down. Especially with such a huge jump in such a short time.
So much for that new flat screen TV we've been eyeing - we wouldn't be able to afford it after we bought food and clothes for our family.
Carol [who will probably get said TV before Christmas but that's not the point]
Edit: It's early and I missed my point... My point is that if real buying power goes down for most Americans, all that discretionary buying stops. Fast food restaurants might be okay because they're fairly cheap, but slightly nicer ones won't be. Pizza will be picked up, not delivered. Best Buy will see a decrease in sales. So will all the other places. Then they've laid people off already because of the increase of minimum wage, so they lay more off because of the decrease in sales. The buying power of those on minimum wage won't actually increase nearly as much either because all of the goods they buy will go up in price for them too. So I fail to see how raising something that wasn't designed to be lived on in the first place is going to solve the problems of the poor.
I'm solidly middle class, and my 'wealth' hasn't been redistributed to the wealthy. The top 5% already pays something like 90% of all taxes and 40% [or more] Americans don't pay any at all. I get a tax welfare check every year - I get back more than I pay in. I disagree COMPLETELY with the principle, but I'm not going to turn it down either. That said, we plan on making a lot more money someday. The government already screws up enough with the money of mine they do get through payroll taxes etc, I have no desire to give them anymore. That said, I do plenty on my own - without government help - to help those less fortunate than myself. I don't need the people who can't balance a budget to save their life telling me the best way to take my money to give to someone else. Not even to me.
Carol [again, who's not sure that's coherent because she's on about 4.5 hours of sleep]
